As you've no doubt heard…
A federal judge barred President Donald Trump from adding his name to that of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Judge Christopher Cooper ordered that Trump's name be removed from the facade of the center and other signage within two weeks. Cooper also temporarily blocked the board of the performing arts landmark from closing it for two years for renovations, as Trump wanted.
And as you've no doubt heard, Trump is now hysterically attacking the judge and his decision and arguing against it. And what I think is telling is this: The judge has ruled that there are laws in place that say that the place can't be renamed and Trump can't just do whatever he wants to it. And Trump isn't arguing that the judge is wrong about the law. Trump's arguing that he should be allowed to ignore the law and do whatever he wants to the place because, in his mind, it would make it better.
A chief exec who respected The Rule of Law would be saying, "The judge seems to be right but what I want to do is so right, we need to change the laws so it can be done." But Trump has long had this "I'm president so I can do whatever the fuck I want" attitude. And this is one of the clearest examples of that.
Speaking of which: Fred Kaplan has a new article up on Slate. If a paywall is keeping you from reading it, you can get a good idea from the first paragraph what Fred thinks is happening. It says…
President Trump's war on Iran is turning out to be an even bigger calamity than it seemed just a few weeks ago. Not only has he proved unable to convert America's vastly superior military power into any sort of geopolitical victory, he has also weakened our position worldwide.