Harry Litman - Purging the Trump Taint [View all]

Well, that was pretty fun.

There was an almost physical satisfaction seeing the letters “Donald J. Trump” removed from the facade of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. We saw the tangible payoff of the triumph of the law over Trump’s raw vanity, like the expulsion of a usurper to the throne. It was reminiscent of the post-Communist toppling of the giant statues of Stalin that Russian people had had to endure for decades.

In its ultimate pettiness, the Trump administration launched a 12th-hour appeal for a short delay in complying with the order to take down the Trump name that had sullied the John F. Kennedy Center for the last six months. The apparent goal was to deny the gathering crowd the satisfaction of seeing the tyrant’s name physically removed. They got a 12-hour extension and then waited until the wee hours to comply, in a process that took less than an hour.

Besides the satisfaction of a modest but tangible victory, the case provides a workable template for many of Trump’s lawless power grabs.

https://harrylitman.substack.com/p/purging-the-trump-taint