Donald Trump spent the first year of his second term trying to signal his strength, his impunity, and his permanence in American public life. When House Republicans gathered at the Kennedy Center in early January for a policy summit, he struck a much more vulnerable tone. "You got to win the midterms, because if we don’t win the midterms, it’s just going to be—I mean, they’ll find a reason to impeach me," Trump told the assembled lawmakers. "I’ll get impeached."
The event appropriately symbolized Trump’s first year as president. It was held at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a once-respected cultural institution that Trump took over and, using his handpicked board of directors, illegally renamed after himself. The wave of boycotts that followed led Trump to then announce, in February, that the center would be closed for at least two years, ostensibly for repairs and perhaps for eventual demolition.
The shuttering of the Kennedy Center may be the least of Trump’s second-term sins. In the first year since returning to power, Trump and his subordinates have pushed the country toward fascism and oligarchy. He has turned Washington into an orgy of corruption and self-dealing beyond even the most cynical observer’s imagination. He has transformed Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol into a lawless paramilitary force that has besieged American cities and killed at least five U.S. citizens and 22 foreign nationals. He has abused Americans and their immigrant neighbors alike simply because he can.
