Things That Don't Surprise Me
What About You?
Goodness gracious, what a surprise. Donald Trump and Elon Musk couldn’t make it work.
What happens when an unstoppable ego meets an immovable narcissist?1 You don’t need to be
to set odds on this break-up, but the data guru and cause of heartburn in nine out of ten liberals writes,Above all else, this is predictable. In my Trump predictions post, I estimated a 70 percent chance that Musk would tweet critical things of Trump by the 2028 midterms, and a 90 percent chance that DOGE would fail to cut at least $500 billion from the federal budget.
Critical things before the midterms? Sorry, Nate, that one was easy.
Claim that Trump is in the Jeffrey Epstein files, call for his impeachment and taunt, “Trump has 3.5 years left as President, but I will be around for 40+ years?” What would have been your odds on all of that back in January?
This article in the Atlantic by
describes the characters in todays farce:You have the world’s richest man, who is terminally online and whose brain has been addled by social media and, reportedly, other substances. He is one of the most prolific and erratic high-profile posters, so much so that he purchased his favorite social network to mold it in his image. He is squaring off against Trump, arguably the most consequential, off-the-cuff poster of all time and, one must note, the current president of the United States. If it weren’t for the other, both men would be peerless in their ability to troll, outrage, and command news cycles via their fragile, mercurial egos.”
Really, who could ever have imagined those two wouldn’t get along?
Next, my Beloved Print Edition of the New York Times included this headline2:
After Trump Takeover, Kennedy Center Ticket Sales Fall Sharply
Again, who could have possibly seen that coming? The cultural audience in one of the most liberal cities in the U.S., who can’t vote for Congress but can decide not to buy tickets to “Cats,” is boycotting the Kennedy Center after Donald Trump made himself Grand Poobah on the Potomac.
Next they’ll be not joining the exclusive, expensive private clubs cropping up in Washington for the Court of the Orange King.
It seems that every day, what’s included in the day’s “news” is rather a slightly different category of information. Certainly, it’s the truth—but it’s more about consequences.
No one is surprised at anything that Donald Trump says or does, and Donald Trump will say or do anything. We shouldn’t waste our time expressing surprise or noting the hypocrisy that no one cares about anymore. See my homage to Maurice Sendak (and Peter Baker),
It’s not exactly “news” that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, nor is it anything resembling a surprise that Donald Trump’s tariff math doesn’t add up (it looks a lot like ChatGPT’s) or that when he and Elon Musk used AI to decide which hundreds of thousand of jobs to cut they’d end up having to take a lot of that back.
Instead, let’s focus on what the Indispensable
writes about the Trump-Musk feud to his members:Both men are operating from the same premise: that the presidency is a tool for dispensing favors and punishing enemies.
That’s the real scandal.
It’s no surprise when venal, messianic sociopaths behave like venal, messianic sociopaths.
“Habeas what now?” “Birthright who?” “Unconsti-tusie-whatsie?”
It may be amusing to chronicle who said what about who in the catfight between Donald Trump and Elon Musk, but there are better ways to re-create high school.
Let’s stay on that scandal mentioned above, or what I call the “Tom Davis Dog Food Problem.”
Former Virginia Congressman Tom Davis, who at one time was Chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, once said if the Republican Party were a brand of dog food, “they'd take us off the shelf and put us in a landfill." Now that contempt is afforded to both parties, or any belief that voting can make a difference in people’s lives, or should be taken any more seriously than professional wrestling.
After Steve Jobs introduced the Apple TV device in 2007, he had a dim view of its potential, calling it a “hobby product.” The same could be said today about voting.
Voting is increasingly a “hobby product” for people who still read newspapers, vote in most elections and might even get weepy over a great political speech.
But as Adlai Stevenson said, when assured he had the support of “every thinking American,” in his campaign for president, “that is not enough--I need a majority.”
What’s a democracy to do?
Maybe not act like any of this is a surprise. Reap, meet sow.3
Descriptions that can apply to either or both, take your pick
I tell a lie—that was the headline online—in print it wasn’t as on the mark: “Kennedy Center Ticket Sales Decline, Employees Say.” I acknowledge that this is not the first time I’ve noticed a digital advantage, headline-wise. Life is complex.
I’ve used that last line before, did anyone notice?