Chickens Coming Home To Roost

Maggie Haberman spent an hour with him in the Oval Office in March and came away with a number. Seventy percent of his mind share, by her estimate, goes to the renovations. The ballroom. The arch. He interrupted an unrelated meeting to call Emmanuel Macron and ask what it is like… https://t.co/rtbn38sKL9 pic.twitter.com/dLDQVTgBiO

— Mike Young (@micyoung75) August 2, 2026

Maggie Haberman spent an hour with him in the Oval Office in March and came away with a number. Seventy percent of his mind share, by her estimate, goes to the renovations. The ballroom. The arch. He interrupted an unrelated meeting to call Emmanuel Macron and ask what it is like to stand under the actual Arc de Triomphe, whether it has a visitor's desk, whether people jump off it. Someone had asked him what should go on top of his own version. He was deciding between that and a giant gold cast of his own fist from Butler.

Meanwhile nobody around him seems fully certain he understands how depleted American munitions are after this war he started with Iran, a live open question from a reporter who has covered him for a decade.

There is no policy agenda left, by Haberman's own account. No immigration bill in the works, no legislative program, nothing beyond retribution and construction. He is not governing a country right now so much as decorating a legacy he has already decided he deserves.

And Republicans are enabling him even as he kicks them out the door.

When this kabuki standoff began, Cornyn wanted Blanche to modify the purported settlement agreement.

This isn’t that: Blanche rescinded a separate OAG directive.

Cornyn knows the difference—and apparently, simply blinked. https://t.co/VYxktS47rA pic.twitter.com/aRnpSjJIpX

— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) August 3, 2026

Cornyn didn’t blink. It was kabuki all along. Trump may have scrapped the slush fund plan (emphasis on “may”), but he’s never let go of the IRS immunity. 

There was a time I’d have thought it too simplistic to blame one political party for all the country’s problems. But now it’s perfectly clear one party wants to govern, and the other party just wants to grift. Maybe that’s just the outcome of the past 100 years of the GOP, starting with Hoover and only mildly interrupted with Eisenhower’s identification of the “military industrial complex.”

Trump didn’t invade the GOP. Trump didn’t take over the GOP. Trump is the culmination of the GOP. It’s MAGA all the way down. And always has been.