Digby's Hullabaloo Posts

Trump’s temple/ballroom obsession says everything about him. And it’s not good:

With so many lives at risk in the Middle East in recent weeks, it seemed frivolous if not immoral to care whether the White House got a new ballroom. It just did not seem to matter much, then, now or ever. And yet the president of the United States, who would seem to have more reason than most to obsess over the war, insisted even as bombs were falling that the ballroom was “very important”. And so maybe attention should be paid.

[…]

[O]n March 31st a federal judge, Richard Leon, ruled that in demolishing the old East Wing and starting to build his addition, which at 90,000 square feet is nearly double the size of the White House mansion, Mr Trump usurped Congress’s authority. Judge Leon, a conservative, peppered his irate opinion with exclamation marks, responding to some of Mr Trump’s claims with an eye-rolling “Please!” Still, all Mr Trump needed to do, Judge Leon wrote, was to get Congress’s authorisation. Pending that, he blocked construction except as needed for security. Mr Trump’s lawyers responded on April 3rd with exclamation points of their own, in an appeal declaring the president to be within his rights. With Trumpian redundancy they thrice called the ballroom “desperately needed”, and they declared it beautiful. But they also insisted it “serves mission-critical national security goals”. The roof, for example, is meant to be proof against drones.

Regardless of who prevails in court, the legal papers help illuminate why the ballroom matters: because it is the most complete model to date of Mr Trump’s ambition, methods and means. It is, in short, the Trumpiest thing he has attempted. However vast the ballroom proves to be, it will not provide jobs or health care, or even state-dinner invitations, to the left-behind, anti-elitist, anti-swamp voters Mr Trump relies upon. And yet, though most Americans oppose the project, MAGA adherents overwhelmingly support it, revealing the direction in which MAGA loyalty truly runs. These Republicans are devoted to serving Mr Trump in his great goal, also exemplified by the ballroom: to make his enduring mark. “I’m fighting wars and other things,” he acknowledged recently, but he wanted to talk to reporters about the ballroom instead “because this is going to be with us for a long time”.

It is—again—just a ballroom. And yet it also reveals Mr Trump’s contempt for the Framers’ foundational preoccupation with checking executive power. Just as he claimed he could impose tariffs on any country for any reason, also to protect national security, he has asserted awesome power over federal property. His theory is so sweeping, Judge Leon wrote, that it would license him to tear down the White House and replace it with a skyscraper. “No statute comes close to giving the president the authority he claims to have,” the judge wrote. Congress, he pointed out, has historically exercised such close oversight of the White House that it prescribes the number of staff and their pay.

In my mind the following is what says it all. This monstrosity is nothing but a slush fund for various wealthy players to gain favor with the president. And they are all falling all over themselves to do it:

And the ballroom is proving a very temple of bootlicking. To any doubts, Mr Trump’s aides respond by extolling him as a “master builder” or the best developer “in the entire world”. His lawyers declare the project to be under budget, though the price tag has already quadrupled from the $100m the president initially declared. They make a virtue of what in previous presidencies would be a vice, that Mr Trump has raised the money from private sources through another signature move—soliciting donors eager for presidential favour, some of whom may never be named. Mr Trump’s allies insist the project will not cost taxpayers anything. That claim values the time of the president and his aides, along with all future maintenance of the colossus, at nothing.

He figured, probably rightly, that once he tore down the east wing they’d have to let him build it rather than leave a big ugly hole in the ground.

When the Supreme Court considered Mr Trump’s use of tariffs, his lawyers argued, unsuccessfully, that what was done was done: it would be too hard for the government to refund the money… They are trying the same move now, lamenting the “large hole beside the Executive Residence”.

And this is why the hole itself, rather than Trump’s Folly if it is built in the end, would be the most apt monument to this presidency.

Yes, a gaping hole would be the perfect tribute. Short of that the Democrats should have it torn down immediately upon taking office just as the Iraqis tore down Saddam’s statue in Baghdad. Symbolism matters. And leaving it up would be the worst symbol of all —a disgusting reminder that an American president who cares nothing for the rule of law and behaves like a tinpot dictator of a banana republic can get away with it.

Dan Pfeiffer has an interesting piece today on the electorate’s rapidly changing views on Israel. This is a massive change and it’s important that the Democratic establishment understands that people are simply appalled by Israel’s behavior and will not support it:

According to an NBC poll, positive views of Israel have dropped 15 points since 2023, in the immediate aftermath of the October 7th terrorist attack. The shift is driven primarily by Democrats, but it goes much further than that. Support among independents is down 19 points, and even among Republicans, it’s dropped 9 points.

Pew found that strong majorities of Americans have negative views of Israel and Netanyahu. This is not just a Democratic phenomenon — a majority of adults under 50 now rate Israel and Netanyahu negatively.

Bibi Netanyahu and the genocide in Gaza have done untold damage to Israel’s standing in the United States. Only a few years ago, Israel was seen as one of our closest allies. Now, many Americans view it as a pariah state. That has real implications for American politics. While many Democrats have spoken out, the leadership — particularly Senator Schumer — has been reluctant to, clinging to an outdated view of the U.S.-Israel relationship. Politicians who don’t grasp this seismic shift risk being out of touch with the electorate in both parties. Israel is yet another issue where there’s a yawning gap between the base and the establishment.

Democrats must speak out against anti-semitism in all of its forms. But they cannot accept the proposition that criticism of the Netanyahu government or AIPAC is the same as anti-semitism.

There are limits, though. On Thursday, a special election was held in New Jersey. Progressive Analilia Mejia easily won the seat previously held by Governor Mikie Sherrill. Mejia overperformed in the Hispanic parts of the state and persuaded a significant number of independents and Republicans. In that sense, her win looked like every other Democratic special election — with one big exception. Mejia massively underperformed in the heavily Jewish precincts in towns like Livingston. In one precinct, she underperformed Kamala Harris by 50 points.

Politico described her positions on Israel as follows:

Mejia has said she believes Israel committed genocide in Gaza and did not raise her hand when asked at a candidate forum if she believed Jews “have the right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland, what is commonly referred to as Zionism.”

The Republican spent most of his time and money communicating to the Jewish community and painting Mejia in the worst light possible. This is just one race, so I wouldn’t read too much into it, but it’s an early indicator of the Republican strategy for this fall.

Having said all of that: the public is unhappy with the Netanyahu government, and they are unhappy with our government’s relationship with Netanyahu. They don’t want their tax dollars paying to kill kids in Gaza, Lebanon, or Iran. And Democrats can’t be afraid to speak to that anger.

This is going to be a wedge issue going forward and it’s a tough one in terms of making sure that everyone understands the fundamental difference between antisemitism and opposition to Zionism or Israeli policy. This will be an ongoing discussion that is likely to get very uncomfortable at times. It is what it is.

But Pfeiffer is right that the worm has turned on this issue. Netanyahu has made Israel into a pariah state due to Gaza and now with Iran and Lebanon I don’t think there’s any going back.

I highly recommend that you watch this discussion between Paul Krugman and Kim Lane Scheppele. The story of Magyar’s rise is much more complicated — and fascinating — than previously known. Scheppele is an incredible source. Here’s just one little excerpt:

Krugman: Given all that, it’s still kind of astonishingly brave that people were willing to stand up in this campaign.

Scheppele: Absolutely. And Peter Magyar developed into this role, right? Because he came out of Fidesz circles. I don’t think he imagined himself as the opposition. He spent 20 years in the shadows. This is not what most leaders do. So he kind of grew into the role as people projected onto him a role he should play. And so one of the things he started saying at his rallies is “We shall not live in fear ever again.” And so it was the fear thing. And he would travel. I mean, Peter Magyar never had security. I’m sure he had death threats. I’m sure that they had a target on his back. He was clearly bugged and wiretapped. They would occasionally release conversations between him and close associates. Like I said, they sent him a girlfriend from the security services. I mean, they had him on their radar but he never traveled with security. He’d dive into crowds to shake hands and so forth, and he would say, “This is our country. We cannot live in fear.” And then crowds were chanting like, “We shouldn’t live with fear!”

And today, actually, I was just in tears this morning reading this. One of my close friends wrote to me and was trying to make sense of everything. He’s also a sociologist, I might add. And he said, “What just happened can be expressed in the most beautiful way by the word “awakening.” I felt the country is waking up to self-consciousness as we wake up every morning. Hungarian society woke up from an unbearable world into a normal and livable world. It took time, but I feel like in the last two years, people’s attitude toward each other and toward politics has changed step by step. I just had to follow the events of the Tisza Party. [Magyar’s Party] Because whoever saw these events could testify that not only more and more people came out to the streets to listen to Peter Magyar, but people were smiling more and more and became more intimate, more joyful, more confident. And they were increasingly connected to the community with a sense of belonging. On the day after the election, Peter Magyar put it simply: ‘What happened was this is the end, and what lies ahead is change and creation.’”

I mean, that’s what those rallies were. More than what he actually said, you showed up and saw how many other people felt the same thing you did. And then the fear went away as the crowd expanded.

It gives you hope.

CNN: “It’s a blowout… not even close… Pope Leo absolutely crushing Trump when it comes to how popular they are.” pic.twitter.com/Ww3E4U4pGl

— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) April 18, 2026

This piece in the WSJ (gift link)lays out the history of the church and the US government and as we know it was often hostile mostly due to anti Catholic bigotry. But it changed :

Post-Cold War presidents mostly walked in lockstep with Catholic leaders at home and in Rome, with a major exception being the Iraq war. John Paul II advised George W. Bush not to take pre-emptive action against Saddam Hussein. Bush stayed the course but reaffirmed his respect for the holy father. The next year Bush presented the pope with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, vowing to work with the pope “for human liberty and human dignity, in order to spread peace and compassion.”

Trump has chosen a different path.

In each election since 2016, Trump won a majority of the White Catholic vote, increasing his percentage in 2024 to about 60%. Yet beneath these positive election results, the mood can be tense. Many of the president’s actions suggest values that are out of step with the presidents that came before him; and as recent popes have demonstrated, they are also out of line with the values of the Catholic church. 

During Trump’s first presidential campaign and first term, Pope Francis noted that the gospel called on Christians to build bridges, not (border) walls. Trump issued a statement that Francis was going to wish Trump was president if ISIS attacked the Vatican.

But the real escalation of the conflict has come in recent months. Pope Leo XIV, the first American pontiff, has proven to be very politically savvy. He seems to have ensured that when he speaks, the American bishops generally fall in line behind him. He has called on the bishops to defend the rights and dignity of immigrants and refugees, and they have answered by submitting legal briefs to the Supreme Court on their behalf. 

Their larger clash, however, came over the war in Iran. When Trump vowed to destroy Iranian civilization, to blast it back to the stone ages, Leo called his rhetoric “unacceptable.” He preached against the “delusion of omnipotence,” and called for an end to “idolatry of self and money” and “enough of war.”

Catholics have criteria that they invoke to evaluate righteousness of wars, which date to the fifth century teachings of St. Augustine. They determine whether a cause is just, if all other options have been exhausted, if war will lead to peace, and if the evil being targeted by war is greater than the evil of the violence the war will inflict. This allows them to determine what is a “just war” and what is not. 

The American president and his advisers have made limited effort to justify their aggressive military actions, which also meet none of the traditional Catholic just war criteria. 

The pope’s skepticism about the administration’s rationale for war prompted Trump, unlike any president in the last 100 years, to recast the Vatican as an adversary rather than an ally. Never before, even at the height of U.S. anti-Catholicism, has a sitting president attacked the pope like this

He attacks anyone who dares to disagree with him or is more popular. I honestly don’t think it’s any more complicated than that. He’s a Know-Nothing in the original sense of the world taking the country back to the 1800s in more ways than one.

Is it a blowout or a knockout?

Donald Trump’s attacks on Pope Leo XIV are even more misguided than Trump’s other assaults on decency. CNN’s Harry Enten explains Trump’s tanking polls in a manner reminiscent of Howard Cosell’s famous “Down goes Frazier!”

“Down he goes …. into the Dead Sea!”

CNN: “It’s a blowout… not even close… Pope Leo absolutely crushing Trump when it comes to how popular they are.” pic.twitter.com/Ww3E4U4pGl

— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) April 18, 2026

All this while Donald Trump eats McDonald’s and sailors under his command eat Unhappy Meals. The Office of the Chief of Naval Operations denied reports of food shortages and poor food quality, declaring that the “US Navy possesses an unmatched logistics capability.” And the shortages, mystery meat and food trays two-thirds empty? Simply “routine menu adjustments.”

Bandits are making out like bandits

The fabulist residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. “made 13 posts in an hour” Friday celebrating his greatness. (That’s His Greatness.) Ron Filipkowski compiled the lot:

• “Iran has agreed to never close the Strait of Hormuz again. It will no longer be used as a weapon against the World!
• “A GREAT AND BRILLIANT DAY FOR THE WORLD! DJT”
• “Now that the Hormuz Strait situation is over, I received a call from NATO asking if we would need some help. I TOLD THEM TO STAY AWAY, UNLESS THEY JUST WANT TO LOAD UP THEIR SHIPS WITH OIL. They were useless when needed, a Paper Tiger!
• “Again! This deal is not tied, in any way, to Lebanon, but we will, MAKE LEBANON GREAT AGAIN!”
• “Iran, with the help of the U.S.A., has removed, or is removing, all sea mines! Thank you!”
• “Thank you to Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar for your great bravery and help!”
• “The U.S.A. will get all Nuclear “Dust,” created by our great B2 Bombers – No money will exchange hands in any way, shape, or form. This deal is in no way subject to Lebanon, either, but the USA will, separately, work with Lebanon, and deal with the Hezboolah situation in an appropriate manner. Israel will not be bombing Lebanon any longer. They are PROHIBITED from doing so by the U.S.A. Enough is enough!!!”
• “The Failing New York Times, FAKE NEWS CNN, and others, just don’t know what to do. They are desperately looking for a reason to criticize President Donald J. Trump on the Iran situation, but just can’t find it. Why don’t they just say, at the right time, JOB WELL DONE, MR. PRESIDENT, and start to gain back their credibility???”

Speaking of credibility, the Strait of Hormuz is an open and shut case that His Greatness has none.

From The Washington Post this morning, Breaking: Iran says it’s closing Strait of Hormuz again, citing U.S. blockade:

Iran’s military announced it has closed the Strait of Hormuz just a day after the country declared the waterway open, claiming the U.S. had breached Tehran’s trust by maintaining its blockade in the region.

The Strait of Hormuz had “returned to its previous state” and “is under the strict management and control of the Armed Forces,” Iran’s military command said Saturday, according to a statement published by Iranian state-backed media.

“Trump keeps claiming victory in Iran,” a headline at Politico reads. “Our new poll shows voters aren’t buying it.”

Neither are the Iranians:

Iranian officials did not confirm most of Mr. Trump’s claims and disputed several of them. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s top negotiator and the speaker of its Parliament, said on social media Friday evening that Mr. Trump made several false claims.

“The president of the United States made seven claims in one hour, all of which are false,” said Gen. Ghalibaf, a military and political influential figure in Iran leading negotiations. “They did not win the war with these lies, they will certainly not get any where in negotiations either.”

Who is buying Trump’s total victory BS? The stock market. The Washington Post reports that investors most distant from the oil production and processing business seem less concerned about the realities of what’s been damaged and how long “it will take for things to return to normal — if they ever do,” said Gerry Morton, oil and gas co-chair at the law firm Baker Botts. Underlying problems signal “a reckoning in the not too distant future,” the Post reports.

Until then, “US stocks rally and return to where they were before the US-Iran war.” For illustration, here’s what the one-year tracker on my retirement nest egg looks like since Trump launched his unsanctioned war on Feb. 28:

Thirty years ago, then-Federal Reserve Board chairman, Alan Greenspan, described that kind of investor behavior as “irrational exuberance.” Under a Trump administration, one might call it market manipulation. Somewhere close to Trump’s inner circle (and to the buffet line at Mar-a-Lago), bandits are making out like bandits.

Update: Container ship reportedly hit by ‘unknown projectile’ in second incident in Strait of Hormuz

Baby Meerkat time!

Baby meerkats..🐾😊 pic.twitter.com/EPKh9cwxxm

— 𝕐o̴g̴ (@Yoda4ever) April 13, 2026

I’m still traumatized by the “Shakespeare” heartbreak on Meerkat Manor, so I’ve been reluctant to follow the meerkat world. But this pulls me back in. They are incredibly cute.

“This is what Trump does. He lights our national house on fire. He lets it burn for 15 minutes before he shows up with a fire hose. And then he demands a prize for putting out the blaze while the rest of us stand here in the smoldering ruins.”

Yep.

He’s now saying that he “solved” the Iran war. Which he started,

Trump is destroying America’s relationships across the globe

Politico reports:

The Iran war is risking America’s global security ties and damaging its reputation, especially among the world’s Muslims, according to a set of State Department cables obtained by POLITICO.

The cables, dated Wednesday, described the fallout of the war for America’s standing in three countries in different parts of the world: Bahrain, Azerbaijan and Indonesia.

[…]

U.S. diplomats at embassies in the countries’ capitals painted damning portraits of an America under siege in multiple media spheres by pro-Iranian actors that are exceptionally agile in the digital space.

In Azerbaijan, what had been a significantly improving relationship has hit a plateau at best, and appears to be faltering. Bahrain’s government is facing questions about whether the U.S. abandoned it to fend for itself against Iranian drones and missiles. And Indonesia’s leader could face growing calls to reduce security ties with the U.S.

Some of the cables describe anti-U.S. sentiment that is having an immediate impact, while others raise concerns that relationships could be in danger if the war continues much longer. Taken together, the cables paint a picture of countries where the U.S. is losing the population’s trust, and potentially that of their governments.

I’m quite sure they aren’t the only ones. For instance:

The abrupt change in direction of US policy is a massive shock for both Korea and Japan. While much of his attention has been focused on Europe and the Americas, Trump’s recent comments on Japan and Korea have not been encouraging. Early this month he said he “loves” Japan, but complained that Japan had made a “fortune” out of the US. While the alliance ensured the US protected Japan, Japan had no obligation to protect the US.  Korea in turn was “unfair to the US – militarily and in other ways”.  

Officials in both countries are reacting with anxiety and alarm.  

The US and South Korea have a long shared military history. Image: Wikimedia Commons

Both support the continuation of the rules-based order, even as they worry it may barely exist any more. For the moment the approach of both countries can be summed up as hide, plan and wait:  avoid being an immediate target of US action; nevertheless plan that they will be; and wait to determine when to execute their response plan.

Trump’s shock treatment seems to be working already – to the extent of forcing Japan and Korea to upgrade their own self-reliance. Ishiba has committed to “dramatically bolster our defense capabilities…with the fundamental goal of deterring an invasion of Japan by possessing the capabilities needed to prevent or repel an invasion of Japan on our own.”  Achieving this would amount to a major reversal of Japan’s post-war dependence on US deterrence. 

The whole world is recoiling in horror at what this idiot is doing. First there were the inane tariffs, now he’s blowing up boats in the high seas and starting wars. How could they possibly trust this country?

The implications of this are profound, as we know. I don’t think we can accurately predict where it’s going but the dissolution of the world order as we’ve known it for the past 80 years is happening very rapidly. If we weren’t in the nuclear age I think we might be able to just sit back and watch it unfold without panicking. The U.S. will still be very powerful, regardless, and very wealthy. As individuals we would likely be more or less ok.

But the reason we had the post WWII order in the first place was to keep a lid on the nuclear threat which, despite many problematic aspects, did work. That’s gone now and we don’t know what, if anything, can replace it. That’s something to keep you up at night.

Well, well, well:

In recent weeks, as criticism of President Donald Trump from his own supporters has reached a fever pitch, a new conspiracy theory has taken hold: Some of the president’s biggest supporters are now claiming, without evidence, that Trump staged the assassination attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania in 2024 and is covering it up.

Many of the true believers think that his survival meant he was the chosen one. But this was probably inevitable:

“I think that maybe it was staged,” Tim Dillon said on his show last weekend about the assassination attempt. Dillon, who was previously a staunch Trump supporter, went on to share that Trump should now come out and say, “Some people are going to be upset by this, but we staged the assassination attempt in Butler to show people how important it was to vote for me and how far I was willing to go for them.”

Some of these claims began months ago. In November, former Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson promoted the idea that the FBI was somehow involved in covering up the shooting, writing on X that the “FBI lied” about the shooter’s online footprint.

A day later, conservative pundit Emerald Robinson went further, posting on X that the FBI “did it.” (In the same post, Robinson claimed that the agency was responsible for everything from the January 6 attack on the Capitol to “Jeffrey Epstein’s blackmail tapes” and the “Gov. Whitmer fake kidnap plot.”)

But the claims that Trump had staged the entire thing really picked up steam when former US National Counterterrorism Center director Joe Kent appeared on Carlson’s podcast last month, one day after he resigned from his position over the Iran war. During the interview, Carlson and Kent discussed the failure of the Trump administration to provide more details about the Pennsylvania shooter. Kent claimed, without providing any evidence, that investigations into the shooting had been shut down before they finished.

I guess that explains why Trump went crazy on Kent the other day. The problem is that until this month he was the director of the National Counterterrorism Center in the Trump administration, a top post with unfettered access to classified information. He’s always been a kooky conspiracy theorist but Trump put him in a job that handed him the credibility he needs to push this counter-narrative with the weirdo base.

A lot of people are skeptical of that event. I’m not one of them. Trump is the luckiest SOB in the history of the world so it doesn’t surprise me that he survived that attempt that killed one of his ardent followers instead. That’s the story of his life. But I have to say that I am enjoying the fact that his own conspiracy mongers are turning on him. That assassination attempt is one of the fundamental tenets of his cult, proving that he is divinely ordained and he’s massively invested in that, as we can see by his displays of the “iconic” picture above, even putting it on the commemorative coin. He’s not going to like this, not one bit.