An indicator of President Donald Trump’s second time period, apart from grinding democracy to a halt, is the sheer unbridled snottiness of all of it. The administration is full of people that suppose they’re the neatest guys within the room—which is true provided that you’re pondering of it within the Enron sense. They’re satisfied they’re cute and intelligent, when actually they’re simply transparently juvenile and antagonistic.
Take, for instance, Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth’s latest transfer to rename Fort Moore. Sure, Hegseth took day out of his busy schedule of touring abroad with skilled right-wing troll Jack Posobiec and actually whitewashing the navy to challenge a cute little missive altering Fort Moore’s title again to Fort Benning.
For over 100 years, the large navy base in Georgia was named after Henry Lewis Benning, a Accomplice basic who actually beloved slavery. In 2023, the Biden administration renamed 9 navy bases initially named for Accomplice leaders, together with Fort Benning.
Cease and take into consideration how bizarre it’s that after crushing a treasonous foe whose raison d’etre was to protect the enslavement of Black folks, we named a bunch of navy installations after these losers. It’s absurd it took so long as it did for these names to be modified.
So, for a quick second, Fort Benning turned Fort Moore, named after Lt. Gen Hal Moore. Moore had a prolonged, distinguished profession, together with a brutal stint commanding an air battalion in Vietnam. Nevertheless it was inevitable {that a} Trump victory would imply reverting to the Accomplice names, provided that he made it a marketing campaign promise.
Nevertheless, when Hegseth introduced Fort Moore would as soon as once more be Fort Benning, it will now be named after Cpl. Fred G. Benning, who obtained the Distinguished Service Cross for his service in World Struggle I. You’re to be forgiven should you’ve by no means heard of Fred Benning, as there appears to be no official point out of him till the title change. Hegseth seems to have mainly scoured an inventory of names till he discovered one other Benning to call the bottom after.
That is equal components smug and infantile, which is just about Hegseth in a nutshell. In fact the title change is meant to honor the treasonous slavery fanatic for whom the bottom was initially named. Hegseth made no secret of his disdain for the title adjustments. However by saying that no actually, it’s now honoring a completely completely different Benning, Hegseth thinks he’s pulled a quick one and insulated himself from criticism.
This is identical wink-and-a-nod sort of habits as the correct’s adoption of the “OK” signal as an in-group sign. Utilized by Proud Boys, racist cops, and Roger Stone, amongst others, it was completely supposed as a white energy image. However when referred to as out on it, they would insist that it was liberals who have been overreacting, discovering racism in the whole lot, and the hand gesture was benign.
In fact, Hegseth isn’t alone on this infantile habits. Trump is the king of it, a petty little man who thinks he’s being wildly witty by calling Canada the 51st state and referring to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “Governor Trudeau.” Or altering the title of the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America” simply ‘trigger and barring reporters from the White Home who refuse to undertake it.
That simply emboldens folks like Secretary of Homeland Safety Kristi Noem one other questionable Trump decide, who likes to rock a flak jacket in “dangerous” locations like Arlington, Virginia.
On a visit to the Haskell Free Library, which straddles the border between america and Canada, Noem behaved like a five-year-old whose mother and father have indulged her antics for a lot too lengthy. Whereas standing on the American facet of {the electrical} tape marking the border, Noem stated, “USA No. 1.” Then, she stepped over to the Canadian facet and referred to as it the “51st state.” Not as soon as, however thrice.
Moreover being designed to inflame tensions with a longtime ally, this kind of factor is simply profoundly embarrassing and cringeworthy.
Whereas Hegseth and Noem’s stunts appear largely designed to set off the libs, different actions by the administration are designed to convey an smug untouchability. Take the refusal to call the pinnacle of the Division of Authorities Effectivity, adopted by the announcement {that a} random worker, Amy Gleason, is the appearing administrator in cost.
It’s actually the very same factor Elon Musk did at Twitter, naming Linda Yaccarino because the nominal CEO whereas persevering with to run the whole lot. Everyone knows that Musk is operating DOGE. Nicely, we truly know that Musk is operating the whole lot, however now everybody has to faux that Gleason is behind the DOGE teardown of the executive state.
Equally dangerous are the administration’s strikes to defy courtroom orders, the practical equal of sticking a tongue out to the choose. When the administration was ordered to unfreeze the Nationwide Institutes of Well being funding, whereas pretending to conform, they barred the company from posting something to the Federal Register. (The Federal Register is the authorized medium for recording and speaking the foundations and rules established by the manager department of the federal authorities.) Because the regulation requires public discover within the Register for NIH grant assessment conferences, the publication ban saved the freeze in place.
Equally, when a federal choose ordered that the blanket freeze on the U.S. Company for Worldwide Improvement spending be ended, the administration pretended that hapless Secretary of State Marco Rubio someway reviewed almost 10,000 USAID applications in just some days, axing over 90% of them.
As a result of they management all of the levers of energy proper now, none of those folks should care whether or not anybody believes them or not. However these aren’t good folks, and so they’re not fooling anybody.
