Team Trump claims that everything is about national security. It’s an argument that worked with the fakakta ballroom, so they’re using it with other controversies. The Supreme Court bought the whole bunker under the ballroom shtick when they should have hit the DOJ with a stick. It was a preposterous argument in that context but MAGA is based on preposterous arguments.
Why is the Insult Comedian’s Albert Speer-lite arch the featured image? The administration is now saying it will be an armory arch. That’s right, they claim that it will be used to store drones and other weapons. On its face this is yet another deeply stupid argument: Who stores munitions in a massive structure and tells the world about it? Team Trump, that’s who.
Looks more like a target than an armory to me:
The administration is trying the national security dodge in defending its ban on CNN, MS NOW, and Politico. Impertinent questions are a threat to the national security? Who knew?
That case is a loser. They tried banning then CNN reporter Jim Acosta from the White House in 2018. They lost in front of the same judge who’s hearing the 2026 press ban. The hearing was yesterday afternoon; the judge ruled against Team Trump in the wee small hours of the morning.
Team MAGA’s philosophy, such as it is, is to throw copious amounts of shit against the wall and see what sticks. It’s not sticking like it did during Trump 1.0. The overreach of that administration is nothing compared to what they’re trying to pull off today. Flooding the zone with shit doesn’t work when you’ve broken all your campaign promises. All it does it stink up the joint.
MAGA’s marks are starting to wake up and realize they’ve been conned. Hence the free fall of Trump’s approval ratings even among Republicans. His overall ratings have hit Bush 2.0 levels and seem headed to Nixon and Truman land. A reminder that Truman left office wildly unpopular, Watergate led to his rehabilitation in the public’s eyes. Former presidents are always more popular than the Current Occupant.
Speaking of Tricky Dick, he tried to make everything about national security too. He had mixed results with that gambit but the Burger Court didn’t have his back in the way that the Roberts Court has Trump’s. It’s unclear what will happen if and when the arch and press ban cases arrive at the Supreme Court. It shouldn’t be a mystery but SCOTUS is so corrupt that they treat Sam the Sham Alito like a lawyer instead of a bad joke, which is what he is.
I’m not one of those liberals who thinks national security is never a valid argument. It just isn’t in these cases. Team Trump has a lot of nerve making national security arguments given what they’ve done to undermine our alliances and place in the world. The Kaiser of Chaos has made America a pariah nation. Trust is gone, replaced by wariness and suspicion. Thanks, Donald.
An unintentionally hilarious sub-plot has crawled from the wreckage of the media ban. The White House has launched Trump TV on the YouTube. Some critics are calling it state media but I’m calling it another sign of a weak president who has lost the plot. In a word: Pitiful.
The last word goes to Warren Zevon: