Funny, isn't it? Or is it?

 

Timothy McVeigh planned and committed one of America's most horrific domestic terrorist attacks on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, killing 160 men, women, and children. 

Timothy McVeigh belonged to a extremist Christian sect.  His actions and affiliations were linked to the extremist Christian Identity movement, which is a racist and anti-Semitic belief system. His connections included the importance of the date of the Oklahoma City bombing (April 19) to the movement, his association with the Christian Identity compound Elohim City, and his admiration for The Turner Diaries, a book revered by Christian Identity adherents.

*********************

This was posted and admired over at the Mother Ship today:

No American that I know blames all Christians for the Oklahoma City bombing. Do you know of any individual or group of Americans that hold Christians responsible for that terrible, terrible day?

Yet the woman who runs the Mother Ship proudly posted this, and probably thought it was funny because it implicated the newly elected mayor of New York City, Zorhan Mamdani, as a Muslim terrorist who killed 3,000 Americans on 9/11.

Mr. Mamdani was 11 years old on 9/11.

The people who publish trash like the above meme are what drags America into the gutter.

THIS PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

 

Trump’s complete lack of human compassion was on full display when Gordon Findlay, a Novo Nordisk executive, fainted right behind him during the Oval Office press conference on weight loss drug prices.  

As Findlay collapsed, Trump looked visibly annoyed and made no effort to help, letting others rush to the man’s aid while he stood back and waited for the cameras to turn back to him. 

Medical staff acted quickly, and Findlay is expected to recover, but the White House has not revealed further details about his condition.​ 

The picture below was taken by photographer Andrew Harnik of Getty images and will probably go down in history as the perfect symbol of what a self centered, callous man Trump is. 

Instead of showing any real concern, Trump appeared irritated about the disruption and was eager to get back to his event, emphasizing how much the interruption inconvenienced him.

 

If you had a demented loved one, you'd recognize this behavior. Alzheimer's a disease that progresses to different levels. Some good days, some bad days. Earlier Trump was slumped and appeared to be asleep in his chair.  His staff are covering for him far worse than Reagan's and Biden's people covered for them. 

Trump is an unpopular president.

 

Democrats sweep Tuesday's elections.

 

IMO and the opinion of others who understand the political implications of elections, Tuesday night was a resounding rebuke of Trump and the GOP:

From Heather Cox Richardson:

"...legal scholar John Pfaff wrote: 'Every race. It’s basically been every race. Governors. Mayors. Long-held [Republican] dog-catchers. School boards. Water boards. Flipped a dungeon master in a rural Iowa D&D club. State senators. State reps. A janitor in Duluth. State justices. Three [Republican] Uber drivers. Just everything.' 

Trump posted on social media: 'TRUMP WASN’T ON THE BALLOT, AND SHUTDOWN, WERE THE TWO REASONS THAT REPUBLICANS LOST ELECTIONS TONIGHT,’ according to Pollsters. 

But in fact, voters resoundingly rejected Trump and Trumpism, and today, politics will be a whole different game."

*************************

Trump, throwing his usual toddler hissy fit, warned Mamdani, New York's new mayor, that he would withhold federal funding from the city because the New Yorkers' choice for mayor, and not Trump's, won!

That's a first in my lifetime. Never have I heard a POTUS threaten a major city with withholding federal funds because that city freely and fairly voted for the candidate of their choice.

But, as we've said before, Trump doesn't believe in American norms, the rule of law, or our Constitution. What he does believe in is unrestrained power and retribution against anyone who doesn't bend a knee to his authoritarian rule.

All across America last night, Americans told him an emphatic, decisive, conclusive, deafening, "NO WE WON'T!"

The Vulgarity of Trump and his Administration:

 

This was part of the entertainment at Trump's "Great Gatsby" Halloween Party at Mar-a-Largo, while millions of Americans wondered if they would be able to put food on their tables.

"They were careless people, Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that held them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…" F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby.

Photo of Trump at Mar-a-Largo after being told of the millions of Americans who will lose access to food because of his government shutdown.

GUEST POST BY DAVE MILLER

 The White House Ballroom Project

 

How President Trump missed a gimme, blew a slam dunk and is wasting America’s time…

 

In golf, it’s called a gimme, a can’t miss putt. In basketball, the can’t miss shot is the slam dunk. In White House politics, a ballroom for visiting dignitaries certainly qualifies. But President Trump misread the green and somehow hit the rim on his slam dunk. Once again embroiling America in yet another unnecessary political “us vs them” moment.

 

Clearly the White House and President Trump have been all over the map on the Trump Ballroom project. Normally a project this size gets designed and drawn by architects before demolition. Then it is submitted to review for structural compliance and safety. Then permits are issued and only them can the project begin.

 

None of that happened in this case do to a confluence of loopholes in the federal system. As such, a president, using private funding, has 100% full authority to manage and direct the project as he or she sees fit.

 

That said, this is not Donald J Trump’s house. It is the people’s house, owned in common by all citizen’s of the country.

 

Throughout the process, President Trump has at best been defensive about questions and opaque with details. At worst, the President was lying when he spoke of the cost, size and scope of the ballroom project.

 

To date we have not been presented with any actual plans, finished architectural drawings, structural analysis or explanations as to why the East Wing, despite the president’s promises was demolished, along with the Jacqueline Kennedy Rose Garden. It’s basically been, from an administration low on the truth meter, “Trust us!”

 

I don’t have a problem with modifications to the White House. In fact the Obama Administration oversaw a Congressionally approved and funded renovation of the heating, cooling and electrical systems along with other needed interior improvements and a tennis court. That is how the White House has been modified for generations. In fact, at one point President Truman wanted to enlarge the Oval Office and Congress said no. He did not proceed, although his administration did add what became known as the Truman balcony and make a series of other needed improvements.

 

President Trump is correct, the White House needs a larger banquet area. Tents and portable potties are not acceptable for a State Dinner. I’m also sure he decided to do it as he wanted because as Ezra Klein and the Abundance crowd has noted, nothing gets built quickly anymore in the US. The regulations simply won’t permit it, and I’m sure Trump wants to be the first to hold a State Dinner in the new ballroom.

 

But he should have worked with the Washington DC Commission of Fine Arts and the other DC architectural review boards to ensure the project fit the overall sense of the Capitol area. Instead of firing them, only to be replaced with hand picked loyalists. A more democratic and open planning process would have ensured a better project, supported by a majority of Americans.

 

Sadly, that is not the case now.

 

 

Timeline of the Trump Ballroom Project

 

July 2025

 

•   President Trump announces a plan to build a 90,000 square foot ballroom to seat 650 people at cost of $250 million on the White House grounds. It was scheduled to begin in September 2025 and be done before Trump leaves office in January 2029.

•   On July 31, the White House announced its plans for constructing the ballroom. While promoting the project at the White House, Trump said the ballroom "won't interfere with the current building. … It will be near it but not touching it. It pays total respect to the existing building, which I’m the biggest fan of. It’s my favorite place. I love it.”

•   President Trump announces construction of the $250 million ballroom will be privately funded.

 

August 2025

 

•   McCrery Architects, a Washington-based firm recognized for its work in classical architecture, has been appointed as lead architect on the new ballroom. You can see from the renderings that the ballroom was to be attached to the East Wing, as Trump stated in July, 2025.

 

October 2025

 

•   A list of donors to the ballroom project were released. Many have business pending with the US Government. Additionally, the cost has now grown to $300 million.

•   After stating the East Wing would “not be touched” during the construction of the new ballroom, the facade was demolished.

•   Trump orders the East Wing demolished in an F-word rant.

•   Announcing funding, the President also said the East Wing of the White House would be totally demolished. This was done without any public comment and after Trump publicly stated he would not do so.

•   Demolition workers say they are not allowed to talk about the demolition and have been forced to sign NDAs.

•   Federal workers were told to stop taking and sharing photos of the demolition.

•   The East Wing of the White House is totally demolished.

•   Trump calls criticism of his total demolition of the East Wing of the White House, which he stated would not be touched, “music to his ears” on Fox News.

•   Trump fires the entire membership of the Commission of Fine Arts, established by Congress in 1910. The commission is charged with giving expert advice to the president, Congress and other officials on design and preservation. 

Members of the Trump Administration have already started calling the new project the Donald J Trump Ballroom. Trump has called those reports 

YOUR SUNDAY MOMENT OF ZEN

 

SATURDAY NIGHT MUSIC

 

I didn't think I could ever listen to anyone but Pavarotti sing the aria Nessun Dorma from Turandot after he passed away.

I was wrong.

This young man from Samoa, Pene Pati, is remarkable. What a voice!

NYTimes: Are We Losing Our Democracy? A Chilling Question.

 

For those who do not subscribe, I will post some of the points the editorial board makes (it's behind a paywall), and I hope this will encourage discussion.

What do you think?

"NO. 1 

 An authoritarian stifles dissent and speech. Trump has started to. 

Countries that slide from democracy toward autocracy tend to follow similar patterns. To measure what is happening in the United States, the Times editorial board has compiled a list of 12 markers of democratic erosion, with help from scholars who have studied this phenomenon. The sobering reality is that the United States has regressed, to different degrees, on all 12. 

Our country is still not close to being a true autocracy, in the mold of Russia or China. But once countries begin taking steps away from democracy, the march often continues. We offer these 12 markers as a warning of how much Americans have already lost and how much more we still could lose.

Authoritarian takeovers in the modern era often do not start with a military coup. They instead involve an elected leader who uses the powers of the office to consolidate authority and make political opposition more difficult, if not impossible. Think of Vladimir Putin in Russia, Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela and, to lesser degrees, Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, Viktor Orban in Hungary and Narendra Modi in India. These leaders have repressed dissent and speech in heavy-handed ways. 

Over the past year, President Trump and his allies have impinged on free speech to a degree that the federal government has not since perhaps the Red Scare of the 1940s and 1950s. His administration pressured television stations to stop airing Jimmy Kimmel’s talk show when Mr. Kimmel criticized Trump supporters after the murder of Charlie Kirk; revoked the visas of foreign students for their views on the war in Gaza; and ordered investigations of liberal nonprofit groups. Mr. Trump so harshly criticizes people who disagree with him, including federal judges, that they become targets of harassment from his supporters.

The Bottom Line 

 Many forms of speech and dissent remain vibrant in the United States. But the president has tried to dull them. His evident goal is to cause Americans to fear they will pay a price for criticizing him, his allies or his agenda."

*********************************

Personal note:  

I cancelled my Twitter/"X" account recently. I joined Twitter in 2013 under my real name, but didn't post anything there; I just read it. I began posting my opinions on Trump when Trump became president, and all through Biden's presidency up to Trump's election in 2024. Needless to say, my posts on Trump were not friendly.

After observing what he's done so far, I decided to delete my account completely. And some members of my family have suggested I do the same with this blog (they're worried), since it's not been friendly to Trump, EVER!

In all my time as an American citizen, I had NEVER entertained the idea that retribution or harm would ever come to me or anyone who dared to criticize a sitting president and his administration.

After what we've seen Trump do to dissent, I've had second thoughts.

We still have three long agonizing years to see what else this anti-democratic president and his administration will do to our freedom of speech.

I made a decision to continue posting at P.E., but what the future holds is anyone's guess while we have an unstable, mentally deteriorating person untethered from reality and the rule of law and in a position of enormous power.

 

Ex-Trump official on president’s SNAP concern: ‘He doesn’t give a s‑‑‑’

Democrats, Republicans and Independents for Democracy

 

 :

Taken from DRAIFD's Facebook page:

Polls taken in October 2025 show something we’ve never really seen before in modern U.S. politics. Most Americans now say they don’t just dislike what Donald Trump is doing they believe he’s behaving like a “dangerous dictator.” And I have to believe that his unannounced, illegal, non-permitted, dark money funded destruction of the East Wing of the White House will only exacerbate these numbers.  

This is not activist language; it’s survey language. Multiple national polls put his job approval underwater: Quinnipiac reports that 54% of voters disapprove of the job he’s doing and only 40% approve, and Gallup has his approval at 41%, down from the mid-40s when his second term began in Jan. 2025. A CNN polling average puts his disapproval at 56%. Independent of job approval, PRRI finds 58% of Americans view him unfavorably and only 40% favorably. 

Voters aren’t just souring, they’re alarmed. In a national survey released Oct. 22, 2025, 56% of Americans agreed with the statement: “President Trump is a dangerous dictator whose power should be limited before he destroys American democracy.” That’s up from 52% earlier this year. Only 41% chose the alternative framing that he’s “a strong leader who should be given the power he needs to restore America’s greatness.” PRRI also notes that 45% “strongly agree” that he’s a dangerous dictator and 43% “strongly agree” he’s assaulting the rule of law. 

The divide is exactly where you’d expect it to be, and exactly where you should worry. Among Democrats, 91% say Trump is a dangerous dictator. Among independents, which is the bellwether for 2026 and for the multiple state elections that are occurring next month, about two-thirds (roughly 65%) say the same. Among Republicans, 82% say he’s actually a strong leader who should be given more power, not less.  

Racial and religious lines are just as stark. Majorities of Black, Hispanic, and AAPI respondents agree he’s a dangerous dictator, while white voters are more split, with a narrow edge toward calling him a “strong leader.” 

PRRI tracks this ideology to Christian nationalism. Americans who identify with Christian nationalist ideals are far more likely to embrace Trump’s use of power and describe him as the kind of authoritarian  leader who should be allowed to push through his agenda, while people who reject Christian nationalism overwhelmingly describe him as a threat. 

What’s driving that language isn’t just vibes. Voters are watching what he’s actually doing in his second term:  Sweeping executive actions;  mass firings and restructurings inside the federal government; personal grift; tariff shocks; illegal crackdowns on immigration; encouraging violent ICE authority; arrest detainment of even American citizens; open talk of using presidential power to punish critics; and open defiance of institutional limits. 

Majorities now say he’s gone “too far” with executive power, with 54% of Americans saying Trump is actively attacking the constitutional balance of power and the rule of law.  

Even among voters who once leaned his way, words like “chaotic,” “scary,” and “dangerous” are starting to replace “disruptor” and “outsider,” and his approval on most issues, i.e., economy, foreign policy, trade, even his mass deportation push is underwater.

Yes, there are caveats. Some of these polls force a binary choice  “dangerous dictator” vs. “strong leader” which can exaggerate intensity.  I prefer poles with numerical values for example 1 to 5 with one being extreme and five being generous.  I feel that these polls over time give a far a better measure. But I don’t write the polls.  And of course, the story splits along party lines, because everything splits along party lines. 

But the fact that this framing has now moved from activist protest signs to mainstream polling language and that nearly half of Independents say, not just casually but strongly, that they believe the sitting president is a dangerous dictator who must be limited, should stop everyone in their tracks. 

That is not normal language for a healthy democracy. It’s the language a country uses when it already believes the brakes have failed.

I keep asking the question are we mad enough yet? And it appears we’re getting closer.

The Wall Street Journal goes after Trump on tariffs:

From Occupy Democrats: 

The right-wing Wall Street Journal stuns MAGA world with an absolutely scathing takedown of Donald Trump’s pathetic Reagan tantrum.

Donald Trump just got publicly roasted by one of his own old allies — The Wall Street Journal, the influential financial newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch.

In a scathing new editorial, the conservative paper accused Trump of acting like a “king” after he threw an all-caps meltdown over a Canadian TV ad quoting Ronald Reagan — of all people — warning against tariffs.

Ontario’s government ran a simple, fact-based ad showing Reagan saying what every sane economist knows: tariffs hurt Americans. But Trump couldn’t handle it.

He ranted that the ad was “AI or something,” accused Canada of “cheating,” and then — in a fit of rage — announced a 10% tariff hike on Canadian imports “because of their serious misrepresentation.”

Translation: A TV commercial hurt his feelings, so he’s taxing you.

The Editorial Board of the Journal didn’t mince words. It said Trump was “acting like a king,” abusing presidential power to lash out at critics, and flat-out lying about Reagan’s record. “Reagan knew tariffs are taxes,” the paper reminded readers, “while Mr. Trump pretends they are paid by foreigners.”

Let that sink in: The Wall Street Journal — the conservative mouthpiece of America’s financial fat cats itself — just called Trump an economic fraud and a wannabe monarch.

And they’re right. Trump’s trade wars have cost American farmers, manufacturers, and consumers billions, while he’s out here claiming Ronald Reagan was a tariff-loving socialist.

Reagan’s whole message was about free trade. Trump twisted it into an excuse for economic nationalism and political revenge.

Even the Gipper would be rolling in his grave as the Journal pointed out in its criticism of the Reagan Foundation’s cowardly capitulation to Trump. 

“It’s a shame to see the Reagan Foundation, of all places, indulging Mr. Trump’s pique with its statement saying the speech was taken out of context. Anyone who reads the whole speech can see the Gipper favored free trade, with rare exceptions for political pragmatism and national security. Reagan also backed, long before NAFTA, a North American free-trade area,” the WSJ Editorial Board wrote.

********************************

In case you missed it:

"The White House on Tuesday fired all six members of the Commission of Fine Arts, an independent federal agency that would have reviewed President Donald Trump’s ballroom construction project, a White House official confirmed to NBC News."

Trump, the autocrat, doesn't have to answer to ANYONE now after bulldozing the East Wing.

Are you happy with this everyone?

And how would you have reacted had former presidents, say, Obama or Biden, done such a shocking thing?

You okay with this?

TRUMP'S AMERICA:

 

I live in a country where young Republicans joke about loving Hitler; where a sitting president keeps musing about going for an illegal, anti-Constitutional 3rd term; where people are being beaten and disappeared from our streets without due process; where a sitting POTUS orders the murder of people in boats in international water; where a sitting president took a wrecking ball to the nation's White House without any consultation with proper historical committees (and who lied to the American people when he promised that no part of the WH would be touched!); where Americans' health care is in jeopardy because the Republican Party wants to kill the ACA ---

And the Party of Trump is going after a legal American citizen because he is on track to become the mayor of one of America's greatest cities, and Trumpers don't like his politics.

House Republicans want to strip Zohran Mamdani of his citizenship — and maybe deport him. That sentence should stop you cold. A sitting state lawmaker, now the frontrunner for New York City mayor, being targeted not for corruption or espionage, but for belonging to the wrong political movement.

That’s where we are.

The absurdity would almost be laughable if it weren’t so chilling.

Because this isn’t about Mamdani’s paperwork. It’s about the rebirth of a dangerous idea — that citizenship is not a right, but a privilege granted only to the “right kind” of American.

Representatives Randy Fine of Florida and Andy Ogles of Tennessee have asked the Justice Department to investigate Mamdani’s path to naturalization and to consider revoking his citizenship. Ogles even went so far as to post “Deport Mamdani!” — accusing him of being a “communist who will destroy New York.”

Their justification? That Mamdani joined the Democratic Socialists of America, and once called to free the “Holy Land Five,” a group of Palestinian-American charity leaders imprisoned since 2008. In their eyes, that’s enough to make him an “enemy within.”

Fair or not?

 

This is pathetic.

 

Some of my commenters never miss an opportunity to remind this blog of former President Biden's declining cognition while he was in office. Some even suggested that he was so demented that his wife and aides were running the country.

I now ask some of my commenters, what would you call a sitting president who published on his own social media account a screed claiming that Joe Biden's administration rigged the 2020 election, spied on senators and congressmen and tapped their calls, ALL WHILE DONALD TRUMP WAS POTUS!

Trump shows the American people every day that he's senile.

Will any of those who claimed former President Biden was senile have the courage to say the same thing about an obviously demented president?

Who's running the country? Trump's aides? Melania? 

This latest Truth Social post shows a man who has lost touch with reality; a man who couldn't remember that HE was president in 2020; and that his accusations about the Biden administration "spying" on him is the product of a deteriorating mind.

The Madness of King Don!

Trump is detached from reality, and he's running (ruining) the country! He posted this today:

Trump did NOT win three elections.

Trump's approval numbers are in the low 40s.

Trump's economy is a mixture of good and not good.

There was never ever "transgender for everyone."

Donald J. Trump is mentally deteriorating by the day.

YOUR SUNDAY MOMENT OF ZEN

 

"As the light changed from red to green to yellow and back again, I sat there thinking about life. Was it nothing more than a bunch of honking and yelling? Sometimes it seemed that way." --Jack Handy

SATURDAY NIGHT FUNNIES

 

Thinking of a certain frequent poster here at P.E.:

ONLY IN MAGA's CORRUPT AMERICA:

 

A convicted felon pardoned by a convicted felon is planning to have that convicted felon break the law in the Constitution that prohibits a third term for a US president, who would still be a convicted felon.

Steve Bannon says ‘there is a plan’ for Trump to be president in 2028: ‘We had longer odds in 2016 and 2024’ 

‘Trump is going to be president in ‘28,’ vows former Trump advisor, who claims winning a third term could be easier than previous electoral victories.

Steve Bannon claims 'there is a plan' for Donald Trump to secure a third term as president of the United States after the next election, scheduled for 2028. 

Despite the U.S. Constitution’s 22nd Amendment, which bars candidates who have already won two terms from taking office for a third time, Bannon said the Trump administration will find a means to reinstall the Republican leader. 

'He’s going to get a third term. Trump is going to be president in ‘28 and people ought to just get accommodated with that,' Bannon told The Economist in a video interview."

GUEST POST BY DAVE MILLER

 

Trump’s Bombings… legal or folly?

This is getting way less attention than it should, especially among conservative US citizens.

 

The United States is summarily executing citizens from other countries, without any presented evidence. It started in the Caribbean off the coast of Venezuela and now has expanded to the Pacific.

 

As someone who lives and breaths Mexico, I am worried.

 

A strike in, out of or on the coast of Mexico against Mexican citizens, regardless of guilt, will set off all kinds of international alarms.

 

Not because the alarmed people support rampant and illegal drug use, but because to date, the Administration has provided zero evidence of their claims. The dead in the Caribbean and now the Pacific were guilty the administration  claims in some Orwellian logic, or we would not have killed them.

 

President Trump, who claims we are at war, has not invoked the War powers Act, has submitted no evidence of wrongdoing and in a historic error, actually released two of the people who somehow survived a US bombing back to their home countries.

 

And paid for their flights!

 

If the released were guilty, as the White House claimed, and we had them in custody, which we did aboard US ships, why not bring them here to stand trial instead of sending the home?

 

Why would the Trump Admin release alleged terrorists? It defies logic.

 

The American people deserve answers to these questions, the future of these operations, and the legal basis for these attacks and potential attacks on one of closest allies, Mexico.

 

********************************************

 

Here’s what John Yoo had to say about these attacks. Yoo, no liberal squish, was the author of the famous Bush era “torture memo”.

 

“The White House has yet to provide compelling evidence in court or to Congress that drug cartels have become arms of the Venezuelan government… To confuse them with wartime enemies is to misuse the tools of war, erode constitutional limits, and endanger liberty at home.”

 

Here’s what Senator Rand Paul of the GOP had to say about these attacks.

 

“We have dangerous people in a lot of American cities, but we just don’t just go in and shoot them… I mean, we have trials. They get legal representation. And even on the high seas, it’s been that way for generations.”

 

“We can’t just kill indiscriminately because we are not at war… It’s summary execution! Everyone gets a trial because sometimes, the system gets it wrong. Even the worst of the worst in our country get due process.”

 

“What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment it is to glorify killing someone without a trial.”

 

How does the Trump White House, the GOP and the MAGAverse justify these attacks?

HISTORY, JUST SAYIN'

"A  large reception hall that could serve as a ballroom was added to the old Reich Chancellery during an expansion in the 1930s. This hall, known officially as the Festsaal mit Wintergarten, was completed in 1936. It was designed as a large reception hall for official events and banquets, and was capable of being used as a ballroom." 

Washington Post 

The National Trust for Historic Preservation warned that President Trump’s planned 90,000-square-foot ballroom would “overwhelm the White House itself,” which spans just 55,000 square feet.

TRUMP: HOME WRECKER

 

Never forget: Trump stated on July 31, 2025, in remarks to reporters: A new White House ballroom “won't interfere with the current building.”

Here's a thought experiment for our Conservative/Independent/Libertarian commenters here at P.E.:

Imagine if this destruction of the historic White House had been done by former presidents Obama or Biden.  What would your reactions have been?

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON:

Speaking with Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), Chris Hayes of All In with Chris Hayes admitted that the destruction of the East Wing hit him hard. “There was really something visceral about those images that landed,” he told the senator. “I wonder if you or other colleagues or other people you’re talking to have had that same reaction.”

Murphy answered: “[T]here’s a lot of history that has taken place in the East Wing, and it was just destroyed without any conversation in the American public, without any consent of Congress. It was absolutely illegal…. [T]hat visual is powerful because you are essentially watching the destruction of the rule of law happen as those walls come down. It is just a symbol about how cavalier he is, about every single day acting in new and illegal ways.

“That’s the story with the killings in the Caribbean, as well. The president just doesn’t believe that any law applies to him, that he can destroy federal property, that he can steal from American citizens, that he can kill with impunity, that he can throw anyone in jail.

“We are not living in a functional democracy any longer. It’s not too late to save it, but it is just important to acknowledge that we aren’t on the precipice of losing our democracy. We are losing it every single day. We are not a functional nation with a rule of law any longer, and those toppled walls in the East Wing are a pretty stark reminder of that.”

Marshall, though, noted that Trump’s behavior “opens up opportunities the political opposition can and must exploit.” The president is “increasingly reckless, acting like someone who is free from any consequences or the need for support from anyone beyond his admirers.” But “[t]he reality is that Trump is deeply unpopular.”