Where’s the bottom? Just when you think this Administration can’t sink any lower, Donald Trump and his minions manage to carve out a deeper pit of crassness, vengeance, and retribution. For “never Trumpers,” the revolt of some of his MAGA base after Attorney General Pam Bondi reneged on her promise to release the Jeffrey Epstein file, essentially saying there is no “there” there, is sweet to contemplate. The fact that the Epstein case still is front-page news and continues to simmer at the White House indicates a couple of thoughts – it’s a hot summer in search of news, or the file has damning information about Trump’s previous involvement with Epstein and his criminal sexual predations against girls and young women.
To add fuel to the fire, Trump filed a frivolous $10 Billion defamation lawsuit against his former buddy and Wall Street Journal owner Rupert Murdoch, as well as the reporters who wrote about a bawdy birthday card Trump supposedly wrote to Epstein in 2003. Trump says he never “wrote” the sexy picture and that may be true. You don’t “write” pictures, you “draw” them, but his limited vocabulary may preclude selecting the appropriate verb. His son claims that he never knew his father to doodle or draw, but several of his line drawings have been identified and photographed. Using his usual black marker, the skylines of New York are quite juvenile, doodles that you’d see in a sixth-grade boy’s notebook, but that might be an insult to sixth-grade boys!
And now, Trump has launched another shiny object in an attempt to deflect attention from more serious stuff. Over the weekend, he commanded the Washington football team owners to re-name the team to its old derogatory racial epithet for Native Americans, or else he would restrict the stadium deal for the old RFK stadium site. The derogatory nickname was removed in 2020, and the team officially became the Commanders in 2022. The backstory about the eventual name change is lengthy…and personal for me. In 1972, my husband, a civil rights attorney who represented Native American tribes across the country, sent a letter to Edward Bennett Williams, the legendary president of the team, asking him to “consider the effect that the use of a derogatory racial epithet as a team nickname has on American Indians, as well as non-Indians.” His letter went on to suggest that “a test of moral sensitivity and good judgment can be made to apply” and ended by assuring that “this matter will not just go away.” Mr. Williams agreed to an in-person meeting with my husband and his clients but refused to consider any changes to the name. Twenty-five years later, in 1997, the issue had not gone away, but a new approach petitioning the Patent and Trademark Office to cancel the offending registered trademark, was undertaken in Suzan Harjo, et al., v. Pro-Football, Inc. That petition also failed. Twenty-five years after that, public furor finally demanded a name change, a full 50 years after my husband’s original letter!
So, it’s on to the next shiny object, whatever that is. With his focus on deals, never on governance, Donald Trump obviously doesn’t have enough to do. His presidency, as dangerous and scary as it is, seems to be unserious at its root. Multiple lawsuits filed. How much taxpayer money has been spent on losing arguments? Cabinet meetings that are largely photo ops for fawning sycophants, focused on his redecorating the Cabinet Room? Gaudy golden embellishments in the Oval Office that mock traditional democratic ideals. Patently unqualified appointees and cabinet secretaries selected because they “look good” on television. Firing thousands of hardworking and expert federal employees just because he can. Essentially selling White House access for personal grift and gain. When the history of the Trump Administration finally is written by legitimate historians, we may find that the bottom was deeper than a grave.