“This country is so much better than what Donald Trump is presenting.”  That was Virginia Senator Mark Warner’s reminder to more than 300 Blue Fairfax diners at the McLean Hilton on Sunday evening.  The second Trump Administration is about four months old, and many aspects of his executive branch do seem infantile. Babies are fascinated by bright shiny objects.  Maybe that’s why Trump tosses them like so much confetti, hoping everyone else is as fascinated by them as he is.  But bright shiny objects often self-destruct or disappear into the ether, quickly forgotten in favor of things that take precedence in most Americans’ everyday life, like jobs, housing costs, and food.   

When Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called out the United States for advocating that Canada become the 51st state, I felt dismay because it was Trump who voiced those fantasies, not the American people.  In fact, polls indicate that a majority of Americans do not support the Trump agenda to annex Canada, buy Greenland, or take over any other country.  Our longtime allies are partners and friends, but Trump seems to see everything, and everyone, as an enemy, and the only collaboration he will entertain is complete submission to his desires and demands. 

Now Moody’s has downgraded the U.S. government’s credit rating because of the burgeoning budget deficits, which will balloon even more if Trump’s “big beautiful budget bill” is approved by Congress. Speaker Johnson said that the bill would stabilize the U.S. economy in the eyes of the world. Really?  Slashing health care for millions of citizens, increasing the deficit, cutting food stamps and millions of meals to food banks, removing environmental supports for clean air and clean water, abandoning foreign aid that built our “soft power” around the world to give billionaires more tax cuts doesn’t sound like stability.  In the “politics makes strange bedfellows” arena, all Democrats and some Freedom Caucus Republicans oppose the bill for vastly different reasons.  Whether their opposition leads to more rational negotiations and decisions remains to be determined.  

Gift or grift?  One item that may not be in Trump’s proposed budget is the estimated billion dollars, or more, that would be required to renovate and revamp the Qatari royal family’s plush Boeing 747 jet into Air Force One.  Trump has complained that Air Force One, essentially the flying White House, is old, and looks shabby when parked next to billionaires’ private jets.  The mere idea of a $400 million jetliner being gifted to the president should raise alarms, and no amount of twisted logic – the plane would be given to the Department of Defense, not to the president; there are no conditions on acceptance of the “gift” according to Attorney General Pam Bondi; the plane would be transferred to the Trump library foundation at the end of his term (assuming he leaves at the end of his second term) – can vitiate violations of the emoluments clause of the Constitution.  But this is a president who responds “I don’t know” when asked if he has responsibility to uphold the Constitution and chooses which principles to ignore on a whim. Now that even some of his strong supporters say the gift doesn’t pass the “smell test,” Trump may finally have overstepped his bounds and will have to find another literally shiny object to play with.   

The announcement that former president Joe Biden has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer was surprising and saddening.  Similarly, Congressman Gerry Connolly’s announcement that his esophageal cancer has returned after being in remission for a few months is a gut punch, for both family and supporters.  Joe Biden and Gerry Connolly have dedicated their lives to public service, seeking to make the world a better place.  Sadly, their devastating health diagnoses also are playing out in the public arena when privacy is required, for them and their loved ones.  Regardless of your political persuasion, prayers, positive thoughts, and a big “THANK YOU” to both statesmen are essential now. To paraphrase Senator Warner, “this country is so much better” for their efforts.