Your bag is empty.
The heat? Oppressive. The crowd? About a hundred of the faithful had gathered in the Rose Garden, smiling, to celebrate a National Day of Prayer with President Donald J. Trump. Some of the grinning Christians waved their hands and grinned like a Cheshire cat from ear to ear, while those of other faiths sat stoically. Vice President Mike Pence, a “True believer, praise Jesus,” began the ceremony in a stifling heat that soon had attendees and the press scrambling for makeshift fans and cups of ice-cold water.
Pence praised the Lord and denounced violence against all religions. Then a Baptist chorus got up on the short stage and sang. Appearing with two guitar players, one with a goatee and wearing cowboy boots, the group sang a song they claimed everyone would know. Only a few of us sang the lyrics.
Catholics, Jews, a few protestants, the Sikhs, Muslims and any stray Zoroastrians had no clue as to what the Baptists were singing about as the guitar players pretended to play their instruments while the group sang—sometimes off-key—to canned music. In the last row, near the assembled reporters standing in the stifling heat, someone could be heard uttering a line from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: “My boy we are Pilgrims in an unholy land.”
Usually you have to travel to a tent revival in Mississippi in the late summer to catch such a sideshow. But it is 2019 at the White House, and the president has to shore up his support among the faithful—many of whom have attended tent revivals or had parents and grandparents who attended tent revivals.
The audience in the Rose Garden, including the president, swatted at the bumblebees—some with their makeshift fans—while others enjoyed the sounds of the nearby songbirds. Bless them birds: they were the only singers who didn’t warble along to the pre-recorded music.
“Up is down. Down is up. The man who has no faith has corrupted those of faith.”
The true music was made by the Marine Corps band, but it had stopped playing by the time the ceremony began. A few of the band members appeared to pass out or slumber in the sticky D.C. heat as the speakers from all faiths turned the affair into one long church service. Trump himself skipped most of the introductions but did appear before the crowd, about 15 minutes into the ceremony and along with the First Lady, to thank members of all faiths and denounce the hatred and violence that in some cases he has had a part in promoting. Then Trump said how much his faith has sustained him in his hours of need during the recent “witch hunt” sponsored by angry Democrats and the “Snitty” Robert Mueller.
A former official, who resigned his commission in the Trump regime, said the ceremony thus completed the circle.
The president’s people are supposed to put his spin on things, but we haven’t seen this type of lying since Ron Ziegler…This administration lies about everything.
“Up is down. Down is up. The man who has no faith has corrupted those of faith.” If you want to call that into question, Sarah Huckabee Sanders appeared in the West Wing driveway the next day. After making an appearance on FOX Television (now affectionately referred to as “For Profit State-Run News” by most of those who don’t work for FOX and by some who do), Sander stopped and turned a stretch of pavement into a makeshift briefing area.
Of course, the briefing room hasn’t been used in nearly two months by the administration; the last president to step foot in it was Barack Obama. The Trump administration minions have made use instead of this driveway for impromptu and extremely short question-and-answer sessions. Director of the United States National Economic Council Larry Kudlow once spent 30 minutes in the freezing cold, at night, out on the driveway talking to reporters after he had recuperated from pneumonia. When I asked him this week why he didn’t use the briefing room, he pointed to a member of Trump’s press staff standing behind him and said, “Ask him.”
Trump avoids the briefing room, and urges his people to do so, in the same way Trump avoids gatherings of people of faith. So anyway, the devout Sanders met us on the driveway.
It was my first chance to talk to her since the Mueller report branded her a liar—something we all knew to be the case—so I had to ask, What does she say to the many Americans who think she and the administration have no credibility.
Her answer: “I know you are, but what am I?”
She actually suggested in lesser terms that the press is what has a problem with credibility, but the sentiment was the same as a schoolyard taunt.
“The problem in the White House is Donald J. Trump,” former ABC newsman Sam Donaldson told me earlier in the week. “I don’t know how you or any member of the press does it,” he explained. “The president’s people are supposed to put his spin on things, but we haven’t seen this type of lying since Ron Ziegler—and he only lied about Watergate. He’d tell you the truth about other things. This administration lies about everything.”
The New York Times and others who keep track of such things noted that Trump has recently notched 10,000 lies on his belt while president. No one seems to care but the Democrats. The truth is the economy is in great shape, and for the average American going to work and paying bills, the ends justify whatever means are necessary.
“I suddenly remembered H.L. Mencken’s description of William Jennings Bryan – the populist Trump pretends to be. “
That’s something Trump understands. It’s a win at all costs. Senator Chris Van Hollen from Maryland talked to me for about an hour after Attorney General William Barr lied to the Senate this week. Van Hollen called it “gross negligence” in government and accused Barr of a “gross deception.” He urged passage of legislation to guarantee that Russia does not interfere in the 2020 election. Van Hollen also teed off on Trump, claiming that if Trump were as transparent as he claimed to be, he surely would’ve sat down with Robert Mueller himself and answered questions.
Trump never did that. Nobody seems to be listening.
At the same time, earnest lawmakers are struggling to guarantee the republic stands with liberty and justice for all, pressing for answers the administration refuses to give as Trump sues, bullies and threatens anyone who continues to ask for cogent answers. “The problem also remains there are plenty of people in the administration who simply don’t know what they are doing,” the former administration official told me. “That’s another reason they don’t have briefings. They can’t. They don’t have answers. They don’t have the background in government or know how government works.”
That is why Trump said the Supreme Court could defend him if he were to be impeached. That’s why no one in the administration seems to know what the Posse Comitatus Act is or how it relates to placing the military on our southern border. It may also explain why Sanders said Friday, in her favorite spot on the driveway, that Trump discussed the Mueller report, Venezuela, North Korea and nuclear arms deals with President Putin of Russia.
Trump spent an hour with Putin. He hasn’t spent that much time with the press or interacting with Americans save for at his rallies. Maybe he still doesn’t know he’s the president of the United States and not the president of the far-right coalition of Republican voters. Or, perhaps there is another explanation.
In Broadcast News, actor Albert Brooks talks about Satan being an individual who will con a great God-fearing nation and lower our standards with flash over substance. As Trump swatted at bumblebees on that oppressively hot day in the Rose Garden, I suddenly remembered H.L. Mencken’s description of William Jennings Bryan, the populist Trump pretends to be. One of Bryan’s last acts in life was swatting flies on his porch, and as Trump waved his arms like helicopter blades at a hovering bumblebee, the comparison was unavoidable.
Then I heard two other people talking about Trump.
“Trump is amazing,” one of them said.
I couldn’t help but turn my head to look at the person speaking. His friend who nodded. “He isn’t sweating at all in this heat.”
It was true. Trump seemed as cool and confident in the oppressive heat as anyone. Dr. Ben Carson was rumored to have wilted and passed out. A female presenter with the energy of a Jack Russell terrier, and who sounded as if she were the same, appeared sweaty and uncomfortable. I looked around and saw most of the assemblage looking exhausted. Even those who would later wave their hands back and forth, trying to speak in tongues as if they were cheerleaders in a church revival, looked as if they wanted to be anywhere else.
Not Trump.
“The Devil never sweats in Hell,” the audience member said to his friend. The next day, James Comey penned an op-ed saying Trump “eats souls.” Trump’s minions said he discussed the Mueller report with Putin for an hour. Maybe we’re on to something here.