Here’s the problem with fuming over the bricks and mortar that was once the East Wing of the White House: The time and energy should go to understanding and reacting to the damage the administration has already caused to our institutions and ideals.
Here are just a few of them: The chaos the administration is inflicting on higher education, its attacks on court precedents upholding voting rights, disregard for public policy that looks out for farmers and other working people trying to build or maintain a decent middle-class way of life, not to mention the chaos the administration is unleashing around the world.
Here are further examples of Trump-inspired damage (in case you needed more):
– The administration has now killed at least 57 people in the southern hemisphere, blown up in boats that Trump claims (without evidence) were carrying drugs. The fiery murders in open waters were carried out by drones. The deaths have now spread from the coasts of Venezuela and the Caribbean to the Pacific Ocean near Mexico.
– An ad featuring former President Ronald Reagan speaking out against tariffs back in 1987 stuck in President Donald Trump’s craw. Reagan’s address undercut Trump’s adoration of tariffs as a bargaining chip, pointing out the limitations of such a strategy, a view also shared by leading economists. The ad so angered Trump that he vowed to hit Canada with new tariffs, a childish reaction untethered from economic principle.
– The administration is itching to send National Guard troops into American cities (or at least those deemed crime-ridden and democratically controlled). This is dangerous for public safety and for civil liberties. It is also a step toward normalizing the idea of using the U.S. military as a force not to protect the nation, but to police its citizens.
– Speaking of U.S. citizens, ProPublica has documented 170 cases of citizens being detained or arrested at immigration raids or protests. The people, a few of whom were pregnant, have been held without access to attorneys or their families.
– The Supreme Court has temporarily granted the government the right to use race as a precursor in Los Angeles for stopping people suspected of immigration violations, all but putting a scarlet letter on anyone darker in skin tone or speaking a language other than English. Given that the administration’s goal is ramping up deportations, rogue or inadequately trained agents are incentivized to act with impunity.
– Thousands of Americans are eyeing their cupboards, unsure of how they’ll feed their families without the help of government assistance. Others will soon decide to forgo health insurance, unable to afford escalating premiums. Both the intricacies of healthcare and food assistance are issues that could be managed by a responsible, less partisan Congress.
– Congressional maps are being redrawn, without the guidance of new census figures. This is a brazen maneuver of gerrymandering. It began with the Republican-led states of Texas and Missouri, which are hopeful to steal congressional seats from Democrats. Democrats are lining up to perform their own version of this subverting of fairness in voting rights.
But go ahead, shed a few tears, spend a few minutes rampaging on social media about the late East Wing. Unfortunately, its demolition is merely the latest bull in the China-shop tantrum of our petulant president.
The East Wing’s destruction does deserve news coverage, just not at the expense of other issues.
A 1,000-person, 90,000 square foot ballroom is planned to replace the wing. This will not be the last time that Trump pursues gaudy glamour, which he’s long misinterpreted as a marker of class. Rest assured, there will be more gold leaf.
Trump’s ardent fans love the temper tantrums that Democrats are throwing over the East Wing. The louder the left’s outcry, the more robust MAGA supporters jeer. For some, recklessness from the White House is proof of Trump’s visionary status.
The more honest assessment is the appeal of a rebel. Trump might as well be James Dean to some voters. They’ll cheer his every move if it appears to anger liberals. The problem is that while everyone is focused on the outrage, Trump will be skirting off elsewhere to cause even greater damage.
Don’t miss far more serious administration blows against the sanctity of voting rights, individual liberties to peacefully protest, sane trade policy, and the morality of the U.S. in how it conducts itself globally.
Rather, Americans need to accept that the Trump administration calls for democracy-watching by triage. We need to choose carefully where to focus, for impact, and the ability to limit the destruction effectively.
Mary Sanchez is a reporter and writer who examines the cultural changes sweeping across America.
A golden tray sits on the Resolute Desk as President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump is signing multiple executive orders targeting the nuclear energy sector and easing rules for new reactors and nuclear fuel supply chains.
Trump’s hubris rivals the fallen heroes of ancient Greek mythology
In January, the New York Times asked President Donald Trump if there were any limits on his global powers.
“Yeah,” the president responded, “there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
That was eight months ago, but fortunately Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of “The Odyssey” has made ancient Greek literature newly relevant. Before that window closes, I’d like to talk about hubris.
Today, the term mostly means excessive pride or arrogance. That’s part of what the Greeks meant by it too, but the meaning was a bit richer and more specific. Hubris was an insolent or outrageous act that offended the gods, often because the transgressor was claiming abilities or authorities that solely belonged to supreme beings.
Nolan renamed and slightly modified the concept of xenia for the film, calling it “Zeus’ law.” In the director’s telling, mortals should follow the rules laid out by the gods, specifically the requirement to treat strangers with respect lest they be gods in disguise.
In a sense, hubris is the opposite, or at least the rejection, of xenia. The hubris of the suitors, and at times Odysseus himself, invites punishment by the gods and their mortal instruments.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. His claim that there are no constraints on his personal power to dictate events on the global stage was one of the greatest expressions of hubris ever uttered by a political leader.
Trump’s claim was obviously false when he made it.
He vowed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. He’s proved powerless to make that happen. If he had divine powers to work his will, why would he have balked at implementing his tariffs so often that Wall Street adopted the “TACO trade” term for his deals? “TACO” stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
And why would Trump have made so many embarrassing concessions to China — from rescinding tariffs on Chinese goods to allowing them to buy crucial and incredibly valuable computer chips?
But Trump saw his success at capturing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro as proof of his ability to launch missiles to the same effect as Zeus’ lightning bolts. Trump believed he was the most powerful man who ever lived.
This is no exaggeration. In March, when the Iran invasion seemed successful, Trump gave a document penned by“Presidential Historian David King” to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan purporting to prove that Trump was “the most powerful person to have EVER walked this planet.” King was, in fact, a businessman and occasional caddy for legendary golfer Gary Player.
King compared Trump favorably to many of history’s most powerful, and often heinous, figures: Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Many of these men thought they were the most powerful person in the world, too. And many were defeated precisely because they believed it.
At least Napoleon and Hitler had a string of truly impressive victories before they learned the folly of hubris. The limits on Trump’s power have been exposed by far less august forces than the combined might of the allies in World War II or the fearsome Russian winter.
Iran is a comparatively middling power. But the regime’s ability to absorb punishment while imposing its will on the Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a greater constraint on Trump’s power than his morality or mind. We should note that, at least rhetorically, his morality has not proved much of a constraint. He has repeatedly promised to destroy Iranian “civilization” if the regime refuses to capitulate.
But they haven’t — and won’t anytime soon — because the regime’s tolerance for pain far outstrips Trump’s. The combined fear of skyrocketing oil prices, outrage of Gulf state potentates, diminishing weapon supplies and domestic unpopularity is doing the work that international law, congressional oversight and the collective opinion of foreign policy experts can’t or won’t do.
If I considered Trump more heroic than reason and facts could allow, I would say his Sisyphean predicament has the whiff of Greek tragedy to it. Trump is vexed by the fact that the Iranians won’t honor deals or ratify his countless premature claims of victory — giving new meaning to his vow that his presidency would make people tired of winning. It’s almost like they’re out-Trumping Trump.
Things might have gone better if he’d heeded that great Greek tragedian Sophocles: “For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue.”
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Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.