In a town where cover-ups have spelled the end of many political careers, Trump Administration cronies brag that they are the most transparent White House in history. If transparency means you can see right through Mr. Trump and his minions, transparency may be the correct term. 

They’ve made no attempt to hide the selling of White House access to enrich the Trump family and their wealthy pals. Synonyms for transparency include clarity, lucidity, and precision, concepts that seem to elude spokespersons and Cabinet members alike.  Their word salads would make any grammar teacher apoplectic, but worse is the idea that they actually believe the rubbish they spew. Selling access is bad enough; selling your soul is depraved. 

The latest cover-up is literal: a giant white tarp installed over scaffolding erected to remove Donald Trump’s name from the facade of the Kennedy Center. After multiple lawsuits and appeals by the Trump Administration, the courts declared what many knew all along – that adding his name to the memorial to a slain president was illegal, as only Congress can authorize a name change. The deadline for removal was last Saturday, but thunderstorms delayed the work. Television coverage showed workers ascending the scaffolding in full view but, in the middle of the night, that giant tarp was installed, hiding whatever was going on behind it. The court was advised that the Trump name has been removed, but the tarp blocks any eyeball confirmation of that contention.  Maybe Mr. Trump’s ego is so fragile that he can’t abide the idea of his name coming OFF of a building. There’s sure to be another word salad explanation for maintaining the tarp while the search goes on for another way to put his name back on the building.

Birthdays are, and should be, celebratory events, especially those that end in a zero. The average lifespan for an American male is 76.5 years. Genetics and a healthy lifestyle may extend lifespans, while stress and obesity can shorten them. Presidential birthdays may be private, with family and friends only, or public, as when Marilyn Monroe serenaded President Kennedy at Madison Square Garden on his 45th birthday in 1962.

Donald Trump has turned birthday celebrations into huge, often taxpayer funded, spectacles that reflect his monstrous ego and desire for the spotlight. Lest we forget, his 79th birthday last year involved a massive and expensive ($25 to $45 million estimate) military parade that he hoped would rival classic European victory celebrations. (Note: it didn’t). For his 80th natal day last week, Trump took it many steps further – a purported $60 million cage match on the grounds of the White House, with advertising sponsorships, a million-dollar-a-plate dinner, hand-picked military troops in dress uniforms (they had to pay for their own tickets), aerial flyovers, etc. Thunderstorms threatened and delayed the fights for several hours, but the grotesque exhibition called attention, again, to the coarse and vulgar nature of this presidency, and the collateral damage to our democracy and America’s reputation around the world.   

Despite the Trump excesses, there is reason to celebrate a more important anniversary: Juneteenth, a federal holiday that commemorates a final freedom from slavery. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 took the first steps to end slavery, but more than two years passed before slavery ended in some Confederately-controlled states. When Union troops reached a final outpost at Galveston Bay, Texas, on June 19, 1865, they announced that both the Civil War and slavery had ended. Juneteenth has been celebrated ever since then, but it was President Joe Biden who signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act that created the federal holiday. 

Mr. Trump did not issue a Juneteenth proclamation in 2025. Any bets on whether he issues one in 2026?