Banners depicting Donald Trump now hang outside the USDA and the Department of Justice in Washington DC. No President has ever done anything like this before.
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| Photo by USA Today |
Donald J. Trump is having a coin struck in his honor. It's a gold commemorative coin. No President has ever done this, either. He is also trying to have his image replace Sacagawea on the silver dollar. This is likely not legal. Whatever. She's a chick and she's not white so who cares? (Dismissing a Native American woman is such a great way to prove you're not WOKE.)
The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts is now the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. The word "memorial" here is key. Legally, and by an act of Congress, The Kennedy Center is a memorial to John F. Kennedy the same way the Lincoln Memorial immortalizes Lincoln. Will "Make America Great Again" be carved into the marble in that Memorial alongside the Gettysburg Address? Don't roll your eyes and dismiss this as Trump Derangement Syndrome. The Kennedy Center is closing in July for "renovations" and I predict that when it reopens there will be no JFK left. (And hey! How about that East Wing of the White House where our modern First Ladies made so much history? What do you bet that massive ballroom will be named for Donald J. Trump, as well?)
I don't know where you went to school or what was taught in your social studies, but I bet you were told, as I was, that we don't put our living elected officials on stuff like postage stamps or money because they aren't sovereigns or monarchs. This is part of why we fought that Revolutionary War, remember? Yet MAGA mocks us when we march in No More Kings rallies. Okeedokee.
Trump's SAVE Act disenfranchises married women. If you took your husband's name, you better never move. Because if the SAVE Act passes and you relocate, you won't be able to register to vote without proof of citizenship – likely your birth certificate, and your birth certificate doesn't have your married name, now does it? So you'll have to produce your passport. If you don't have a current passport, you'll have to apply for one. That takes four to six weeks. Oh, and after you get your passport, you'll have to contact your State Board of Elections and find out where to re-register in person. If the SAVE Act passes, there will be be no more online voter registration. If you think this is designed to stop illegal aliens from voting, well, bless your heart. It's to make it harder for married women to vote. Makes sense, since only 44% of women voted for Trump in 2024.
Think this is Trump Derangement Syndrome again? Ask yourself how hard it will be for a man to re-register to vote if he gets married or moves. (Or me. At times I am quite grateful to be a spinster.)
Of course, instead of the arduous SAVE Act, we could just require voters to re-register by presenting the Real ID they got so they could board a plane. They had to prove citizenship to get that, so the screening is already done. That would be more efficient for the government – remember DOGE? – and it's already in your wallet. But what fun would that be? After all, we're talking about a punitive Administration that thinks it's completely acceptable to have ICE agents ask citizens to produce "their papers" on our streets, just because of skin color or accent.
I know this President is becoming less popular, but it's not because of authoritarian antics. It's because people are paying more at the pump and even the most Trump-y red state driver cannot possibly still blame that on "Sleep Joe" Biden, too. Somehow that makes me sad. I wish Americans cared more about America than their wallets.
My friend John once said of America during the last Presidential campaign, "In Berlin before the War, they didn't know they were living in Berlin before the War." He was so right.
