"In the past few days, as President Trump neared the three-hundred-day mark of his second term, he made what amounted to a royal progress through Asia, negotiating trade deals and basking in gilded palaces. In South Korea, he was presented with a replica of an ancient golden crown. "I'd like to wear it right now," he said, only eleven days after millions of Americans had gathered to protest his assumption of near-monarchical powers, in hundreds of No Kings rallies around the country."
"During the trip, Trump also announced, via a social-media post, the resumption of nuclear tests for the first time in decades; unleashed another deadly strike on an alleged drug-running boat in what appears to be an undeclared war for regime change in Venezuela; threatened, during a political pep rally in front of the supposedly apolitical U.S. military, to send active-duty troops to American cities; and admitted that he "would love" to remain in office for a third term before reluctantly acknowledging the Constitution's strict ban on it."
"The new normal is forgetting yesterday's scandals in order to make room in our overcrowded brains for tomorrow's. Remember when Trump imposed punitive new tariffs on Canada because he got mad about a television ad? When he demanded that the Justice Department pay him more than two hundred million dollars in compensation for the costs he incurred from the Biden Administration's decision to investigate him? When he circulated an A.I.-generated video of himself dumping poop on Americans protesting him? That was so last week."
President Trump traveled through Asia near the 300-day mark of his second term, negotiating trade deals and receiving ceremonial honors. In South Korea he accepted a replica golden crown and quipped that he wanted to wear it. During the trip he announced via social media the resumption of nuclear tests, authorized a deadly strike on an alleged drug-running boat tied to Venezuela, threatened to deploy active-duty troops to U.S. cities, and expressed a desire for a third term before acknowledging the constitutional ban. Meanwhile, a U.S. government shutdown extended into a fourth week, leaving many workers unpaid and public attention shifting quickly between scandals.
Read at The New Yorker
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