Week 64
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Another bad week for Donald Trump, until he got his emotional support drawings for his triumphal arch late Friday. He can’t get anyone to fix his war that has gone badly wrong, the Iranians are mocking him with Lego videos, and Melania suddenly decided to make Jeffrey Epstein an issue again.
His posting history through the past week is, shall we say, unpresidential. I like to try to point back to a long-ago normality to keep myself and hopefully others on something like level ground. The posts, like Easter morning’s imprecation to Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz, seem to indicate his desperation at having his narcissistic world breached by Iran’s harsh reality. By the end of the week, he had managed (perhaps) to shove the responsibility off onto JD Vance, along with the ever-negotiating Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. Kushner is not a government employee, another reminder, and I’m not clear that Witkoff is either. Certainly neither has any concept of diplomatic negotiations.
Heather Cox Richardson says that something shifted around Tuesday, and I felt it too. Yesterday’s letter summarizes the bizarre postings nicely. I’d add that in his last press conference (Wednesday? It all runs together), he seemed mostly up in his head, didn’t probe the audience to see what works, as he always does. Probably worth watching clips of his event this weekend to see if that continues. He met with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Thursday (?) and posted an all-caps complaint with another threat to Greenland. Rutte said something placating, as he does. That was out of the public eye, as was much of his end of the week.
And then there was Artemis II. Perfectly done. The worst things that happened were a toilet problem and difficulty with the satellite phone at the end. The amount of detail and care from hundreds of people to make that happen is an enormous contrast to Trump’s slapdash style. We need in a president at least an appreciation that the efforts of many people, working carefully, are essential to making the country work.
Eric Swalwell apparently has been a sex abuser for some time and was unmasked on Friday. He was running for governor in California’s bizarre election and will probably drop out. Is Katie Porter still in? She’s been accused of abusing her staff in non-sexual ways.
The contrasts were mind-bending, and Trump’s behavior even reached the normies who I interact with. Impeachment was openly spoken of, and it seemed like people are finally starting to realize that this situation is not what the 25th Amendment was developed for. Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Inquirer called for impeachment in his column.
I think we need to make noise. Insist that Congress impeach and remove. Call on Trump to resign. Holler about corruption. Bluesky had a short “here is the one thing Democrats MUST do” uproar this week. And it’s so silly. We can do many things to express that Trump must go. We don’t all have to be in lockstep. We don’t have to figure out the One Message that will get through to Trump Café in rural Ohio. All of us can do what we can, and what appeals to us. From me, you’ll hear more calls to remove Trump. By whatever legal means. Every day he is president, the country is damaged a little more.
Follow the court-watchers for the details of the lawsuits. Chris Geidner (LawDork, Bluesky), Roger Parloff (Lawfare, Bluesky), and the Just Security tracker.
Let’s stay away from hypotheticals, as usual. Post your pets and any screenshots you particularly like of or from Artemis II.
144 more weeks to go. What are you doing?
Previous weeks: Week 10, Week 20, Week 30, Week 40, Week 50, Week 60, Week 61, Week 62, Week 63