It seems unlikely that Donald Trump has read the work of Percy Bysshe Shelley, but he might want to read (or have read to him) the poem Ozymandias, where the only legacy of a mighty “king of kings” is a decaying statue in a desert, a caution to the vain and powerful. This week we learned that Trump’s all-consuming vanity is not unstoppable—because it kept blowing up in his face. We’ve got the latest on the physical vanity project of the Reflecting Pool, how his personal vanity collided with reality in the form of an AI-ed photo, and how the reality about his vanity “Patriot Games” got exposed by the competitors. Also this weekend, we reveal how easy it is to fool Trump’s top law enforcer Todd Blanche; how Susie Wiles is losing her grip on power; the latest on the scandal of the USS Abraham Lincoln’s sailors; and a truth bomb about Melania Trump’s commitment to her role.
Nothing says vanity like ordering the Department of Justice to frame people, then lock them up for “damaging” the Reflecting Pool you ruined yourself. But that is exactly what Donald Trump did this week, in the latest twist in the green slime saga which has engulfed his presidency. Trump, of course, claimed he was saving the Reflecting Pool from years of calamitous mismanagement by Barack Obama and Joe Biden. He was going to make it Great Again, with an “American Flag Blue” lining, and work by his “pool guy.” The pool guy turned out to be a felon who looked like Fat Tony from The Simpsons, and whose company was called, prophetically “Greenwater”; the pool filled with green slime and Trump raged that it was all the fault of vandals. Then “Judge” Jeanine Pirro, the Fox daytime co-host-turned U.S. Attorney in D.C., tried, and humiliatingly failed, to prosecute David Hearn, an Olympian who put his hand in the water. Pirro had to admit it was shoddy work that had left the pool a mess, not Hearn. Now Trump is back demanding more prosecutions.
How can this be a thing? How can this even happen? Farrah Tomazin has all the details.
The truth about vanity is that it is unquenchable, but it is also fragile. So when Trump published a photo of himself with Gary Player, the legendary golfer, in a Bedminster gold buggy, he perhaps expected adoration. He employed some AI assistance, in the form of a nip here and a tuck there. But then reality came calling, and you can see the truth about his appearance for yourself.
Trump’s obsession with his physical legacy is mostly felt in Washington, D.C. His insertion of himself into the city’s life began, obviously, on the day he was inaugurated again, but the move which most directly impacted the city’s citizens was his summoning of National Guard troops from red states across the country to patrol the city, supposedly to crack down on the rampant crime he saw on every street corner. But this week his vanity was hurt by a clear-eyed analysis of whether the $1.7 billion already spent on pulling young service personnel from around the country to walk the streets of the District was effective. It was not a positive analysis—and he was triggered into a meltdown because he saw it reported on television.
The monstrous Ghislaine Maxwell is a convicted liar, as well as a convicted sex trafficker. But this week, she added to her resume as an unlikely finder of truth, with a surprise role in exposing Todd Blanche, the newly sworn-in attorney general, as all-too-easily fooled. Our must-read Washington D.C. insider guide The Swamp found how she had told Blanche a brazen lie concerning Trump and Jeffrey Epstein during the two days in which Blanche interviewed her. And The Swamp then showed how easy it was to disprove the lie—which Blanche never challenged her on.
First Lady Melania Trump was last seen in public on July 19, when she had the privilege of attending the soccer World Cup final. Her absence since then would be eyebrow-raising for any normal first lady. But The Daily Beast has examined exactly how often she has been seen in public throughout the second Trump presidency—and the answer is extraordinary. In fact, this first lady has been seen just
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.