Fail, Caesar! - MAUREEN DOWD. (gifted)

[Ellipsis]

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/22/opinion/trump-king-third-term.html?unlocked_article_code=1.y04.-qCC.rnh_wuU6b5Uf&smid=url-share

“Remember, I can do whatever I want to whomever I want.”

It sounds like President Trump, to the world. But it was Caligula, to his grandmother.

At least America’s Emperor of Chaos has not made his horse a consul. Yet.

A horse might be better than some of the sketchy characters surrounding Trump.

After pillaging and gutting the U.S. government, the Western alliance and our relationship with Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump is thinking of himself as a king and cogitating on a third term. He basks in the magniloquent rhetoric of acolytes genuflecting to an instrument of divine providence.

At the Conservative Political Action Conference this week, a group calling itself the “Third Term Project” erected a sign depicting Trump as Caesar. A wag on X wondered if they knew what happened to Caesar.

[eShirl]

1. "His megalomania has mushroomed. " I see what she did there

[dalton99a]

2. Kick

I’ve been reading a book called “How to Be a Bad Emperor: An Ancient Guide to Truly Terrible Leaders,” written by Suetonius and translated by Josiah Osgood. Osgood writes of Caligula’s “propensity to give in to every whim and the relish he took in putting down others with cruel remarks.”

The most vivid image of the week was an elated Elon Musk waving a chain saw at CPAC. That glee in the face of pain may come back to haunt Trump. As The Washington Post reported, many lawmakers got an earful from angry constituents about layoffs, freezes and jagged cuts, a hollowing out of government with no sense of logic or heart or safety.

Many who had hoped to tune out Trump this time realize they don’t have that luxury. It’s far more dangerous now. There are frightening moments when our 236-year-old institutions don’t look up to the challenge. With flaccid Democrats and craven Republicans, King Donald can pretty much do whatever he wants to whomever he wants.

[Paladin]

3. Thanks for absolutely NOTHING, Maureen Dowd. (nt)

[PlanetBev]

4. I absolutely cannot stand Maureen Dowd

She thinks her snarky comments are so cute . She brings nothing to the table and has an over-inflated idea of her own importance.

[Paladin]

5. Yeah, I don't need MoDo telling me what a bad guy trump is. Not now.

Same for the rest of the NYT opinion scribblers---it would have been nice to see some this criticism during the course of the campaign---but they were all too busy back then, non-stop trashing Kamala Harris. Unforgivable.