Julia Azari: “Last week Donald Trump flipped off a worker at a Ford plant for yelling ‘pedophile protector’ at him. This is a minor incident in the scheme of things – especially by the violent and disruptive standards of 2026. The federal government is violently occupying an American city. The Trump regime is threatening to destroy decades of diplomatic relations with a threat to take over Greenland.”
“But for the American presidency, it’s significant, and of a piece with other symbolic failures. The most notable and recent of these is perhaps Trump’s response to the murder of actor and director Rob Reiner, whose death Trump commemorated by posting about their political disagreements and even blaming Reiner’s death, somehow, on ‘Trump derangement syndrome.'”
“With these statements of hostility and divisiveness, Trump rejects a core a presidential duty. Notice that I’m not referring to Trump in the previous paragraphs as the president – obviously he is – but I want to draw attention to the fact that I’m not sure the office exists in any meaningful way anymore.”
