Commentary by Stephen Macaulay
“President Trump did what Democrats wouldn’t. After decades of neglect, he committed the bold leadership and proper resources to fix the Kennedy Center and start the renovations of the finest performing arts facility in the world.”
That’s a statement from Liz Huston, a White House spokeswoman, to The New York Times for a story about, well, to quote the opening sentence of the story: “As the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts prepares for major renovations, former project manager there have sent Congress internal documents that they say show how the institution bypassed government contracting norms in work carried out under President Trump.”
Norms like, oh, getting more than one bid for the work, something that your car insurance company probably requires you to do if you file a claim for a fender bender. Or something that you should probably do if you are planning a kitchen renovation.
The point of getting more than one bid isn’t necessarily just to get the best price but to have at least a sense of what best practices are and to get a better idea of how well the work will be done.
All of his prowess as a real estate mogul notwithstanding, Trump’s approach to getting renos done is less than satisfactory.
One need only look through the green sludge that is now in the Reflecting Pool to see the blue coating applied by Atlantic Industrial Coatings — a firm that got a no-bid contract worth some $14.6 million (Trump had originally estimated the cost to be about $2 million)—that is still peeling.
What does the Administration do? It has federal prosecutors change a 66-year-old with damaging the surface.
With no evidence, Trump has claimed vandals used box cutters to make a gash in the coating. It is worth noting that the gash in question is said to be 350-feet long. That’s just 10 feet short of the length of an NFL field (300 feet between the goal lines and a pair of end zones 30 feet each).
Sure, that’s likely.
As it has been a while since Secretary of Defense* Pete Hegseth has held a briefing about the war with Iran that apparently isn’t over, this is something from one of his presentations on April 24.
Hegseth said: “President Trump is the only president with the guts and moral clarity to finally do something about it. I see it every day behind closed doors; President Trump's fortitude is unshakable and his mission is crystal clear.”
Guts and moral clarity but there’s the War Powers Resolution, a legal document passed by Congress “to fulfill the intent of the framers of the Constitution of the United States and insure that the collective judgement of both the Congress and the President will apply to the introduction of United States Armed Forces into hostilities, or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances, and to the continued use of such forces in hostilities or in such situations.”
You know: Follow the document written 11 years after that Declaration of Independence we just celebrated was. In effect, the Constitution is the payoff of the Declaration.
The War Powers Resolution includes this: SEC. 3. The President in every possible instance shall consult with Congress before introducing United States Armed Forces into hostilities or into situation where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances, and after every such introduction shall consult regularly with the Congress until United States Armed Forces are no longer engaged in hostilities or have been removed from such situations.”
Did Trump consult with Congress “in every possible instance” before Operating Epic Fury commenced? Has he done so “regularly” since?
Of course he didn’t/hasn’t. He’s in charge. He’s bold. He gets things done.
Even if they’re not being done particularly well.
So how is the war working out for Americans?
One example. On July 9 AAA released this:“Gas prices are going up again, as the future of the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran remains uncertain. The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline went up 5 cents overnight to $3.84 after steadily dropping since late May.”
It is worth noting the average price of a gallon of gas one year earlier was $3.16 per gallon.
So gas on the 9th was 21.5% higher than it was a year earlier. Even though gas had been going down since late May, it was still significantly more expensive than it was prior to Operation Epic Fury. Or said another way: Americans have been paying more for gasoline for 4.5 months.
Remember when Trump said in April "The gas will go down as soon as the war's over. It'll drop like a rock"? Yes, there was a decline but not a precipitous one. The war isn’t over. And now gas prices are rising.
The US inflation rate had been 2.4% before the war commenced. It is now 4.2%, a three-year high. Simply put: Pretty much everything costs more.
Those who got a 30-year mortgage pre-war paid an average 5.98%. Today someone who wants to buy a house will pay 6.44 to 6.49% for a 30-year mortgage.
Yes that “bold leadership,” that unshakeable fortitude, may have been something that people liked about Donald Trump but are now beginning to see how it is leading to shoddy performance across the board that is costing America plenty.
===
*They like to call it the “Department of War,” presumably because it has more than a whiff of testosterone. But legally it is still the Department of Defense because it takes an act of Congress to change the name. But why let something like that get in the way?
Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.