Meanwhile, in Cloud-Cuckoo Land, we have this particular spectacle.
So, it looks like these are the steps.
- “We plan to build a ball room. We are the Unitary Executive and so can do whatever we want.”
- “We didn’t have to wait for anyone to give us permission to build a ball room, so we started the project anyway, but we promise we’ll go through all the proper reviews and approvals before actually building anything.”
- “Oh, also, we’re going to fire all the people who might have said no to us, and replace them with people who will say yes to us.”
- “We have to get this done quickly and build the building that the architect left the project about because that was the plan all along.”
- “What? You want us to wait so proper approvals can be gotten and possible violations of rules can be litigated? How can we possibly do that? We’ve torn a huge hole into the White House, and also demolished all the critical underground infrastructure, assuming we’d be able to rebuild it instantly. So you can’t stop the project now because it will be a Horrible National Security Problem!”
So .. are we talking about incompetence? Or a semi-competent scam, planned this way all along?
The one thing you can’t call it is a good-faith execution of a nationally significant capital project.
Which, actually, was damned stupid, because, in principle, everyone agrees that the White House could use better, larger-scale entertainment facilities. The one element of truth here from Trump is that every president for the past few decades has wanted to do something better than renting big tents to put on the lawn. This could have been handled as a collaborative project, following the procedures, and serving as an example of good will and unified action to the betterment of the nation.
But that might require compromise. It might require a tacit acknowledgement that Trump cannot do whatever he wants. It more show that the President needs to adhere to (gasp) procedures, to (eek!) work and play with others, and rely on collaboration to achieve nifty things.
None of which Trump would ever dream of doing. Because he’s The Omnipotent Tinpot Dictator type, and following the rules and collaborating and compromising is something only wusses do.
The bottom line is, now we are told that a project that was rushed past all the guard rails, with assurances that there was all the time in the world, now must be rushed to conclusion because Trump’s own actions have made the current situation (according to them) such that the nation is unsafe.
Run that by again. According to the Trump administration itself, we are currently unsafe because they too-quickly dismantled critical infrastructure that the country needed, because they wanted to do it faster than they knew they would be allowed to do otherwise.
Hell of a President, Donald.