In Rolling Stone, Matt Bai described President Trump’s approach to international affairs as “manifest masculinity” and his gaudy makeover of Washington this way: “He would turn the city into a theme park trafficking in nostalgia, an Epcot Center for the American Century. Tourists can bask in an approximation of American greatness, while Trump systematically obliterates the real thing.” (Jennifer Siegel, Durham, N.C.)
In The Times, Maureen Dowd spotted a lost opportunity during Trump’s limp, ludicrous speech about his (and America’s) supposed victimization by rigged elections: “I’m surprised that Pete Hegseth, who says his ‘High-T Department of War’ will start screening testosterone levels of ‘war fighters’ age 30 and older, didn’t rush over to shoot up the flaccid 80-year-old commander in chief with the elixir of manhood needed, as he put it, to give America ‘the leading edge of lethality’.” (Stephen Waxman, San Francisco, and Hilarie Lennan, Media, Pa., among others)
In a comment related to Maureen’s column, a reader identified as Someone with Integrity wrote: “The world’s smallest, shabbiest leader put the world’s tiniest little violin under his chin(s) the other night and proceeded to play his own, wee little concerto in the key of whine flat.” (Barbara Sloan, Conway, S.C.)
Also in The Times, Sam Anderson slipped into a $770 jacket to see how it would transform him: “I felt exposed — like a hermit crab who’d exchanged his dirty old shell for a big, glittering, fancy conch, and suddenly all the lobsters were staring at me.” (Zanthe, Taylor, Brooklyn, and Kim Gazella, Raleigh, N.C.)
Sam separately assessed the string of close finishes and (until the final match against Spain) victories by Argentina and its star player, Lionel Messi, in the World Cup: “You could pit Argentina against a team of local 6-year-olds and, after the halftime orange slices were cleared away, look up to see that the score was somehow locked at 1-1 — and the game would only be decided in the waning seconds, after a defender got distracted because his sister opened a noisy bag of cookies on the sideline and Messi used that slight opening to create a miraculous goal.” (Emily Stabler, Brooklyn, and Gary Powell, Woodstock, Conn., among others)
