File this one below “What could go wrong?” and in addition “Oh, hell no.”
It was solely every week in the past that President Donald Trump seized from the FBI the paperwork he had stolen and whisked away to Mar-a-Lago when he was booted from workplace in 2021. These paperwork have been proof in one among his many prison circumstances till his hand-picked decide waved a magic wand to make that go away and the Supreme Court docket dominated that he can do no matter he needs as a result of … no matter.
Now The Atlantic experiences he’s acquired his eye on a fair greater prize: the Declaration of Independence.
To be clear, Trump isn’t seeking to show the sacred founding doc that belongs to all People in his cheesy Mar-a-Lago rest room the place he stashed his stolen categorised paperwork. Not less than, not that we all know of.
As an alternative, in keeping with reporting, Trump is fascinated with eradicating the Declaration of Independence from the Nationwide Archives in Washington, D.C., the place anybody can go to and pay homage—totally free—and as an alternative show it within the Oval Workplace like the pinnacle of an elephant he killed on safari.
The declaration is rigorously housed in a dimly lit room behind thick glass to guard it from deterioration. Recreating that form of safety within the White Home could be an infinite expense—however possibly Trump may beg Elon Musk for an effectivity waiver as a result of whereas the federal employees who guard our nukes and defend us from epidemics may be thought-about a waste of cash, certainly giving Trump any trophy he needs is a superb use of taxpayer {dollars}.
The very tiniest glimmer of hope is that unnamed aides say Trump has maybe moved on from the thought of getting his grasping little fingers on the authentic Declaration of Independence and is flirting with the thought of displaying a replica within the Oval Workplace as an alternative.
“President Trump strongly believes that significant and historic documents that celebrate American history should be shared and put on display,” White Home communications director Steven Cheung instructed The Atlantic.
That’s not a number of reassurance as a result of we really do understand how Trump feels about nationwide paperwork that belong to the nation, to not him. And we additionally know the extent of Trump’s respect for the essential work the Nationwide Archives does is roughly zilch, which is why he fired the pinnacle of the Nationwide Archives final month.
And whereas the thought of a president stealing a sacred founding doc from the American public seems like a really unhealthy Nicholas Cage film, we’ve all been right here earlier than so anybody who’s hoping The Atlantic’s reporting is mistaken or that Trump would by no means really be so brazen, effectively, don’t maintain your breath.
