Trump is throwing a party and no one is showing up
Another day, another drama from the Trump White House. According to Politico, “President” Trump and his band of clowns are worried about their July 4th debacle. Hey, maybe they should cancel it. And deprive Trump of an opportunity to admire himself and tell us how great he is? That will never happen. They threw this ridiculous event together with little or no thought, and now, they’re worried that no one is coming.
It would be laughable if they weren’t wasting so much of our money to hold what will invariably become another Trump hate rally. There is so much wrong with this event. The RNC is heavily involved, making the event appear to be partisan, which is against ethics rules when using taxpayer dollars. Walter Shaub, former head of the Office of Government Ethics, says that should Trump make one attack on Democrats or mention his reelection campaign, he will violate ethics rules. Let’s hope he does that so that Congress can make him pay for it. NPR points out that past presidents have stayed away from 4th of July celebrations in Washington to avoid the appearance of impropriety. Trump doesn’t know the meaning of the word. As usual, the world revolves around him. He’s going to learn the hard way that it doesn’t, though he will simply lie about it.
White House officials, afraid of embarrassing or disappointing Trump, have literally been handing out tickets like candy. Normally, White House staffers are entered into a lottery to receive two to four tickets to events such as the Easter Egg Roll, but in this case, they are being entered to receive ten. In other words, there will be very few people anxiously awaiting a rambling Trump speech, and they are rapidly trying to fill those seats. When you consider that no one is interested in this crap, the cost becomes even more of a problem.
Not surprisingly, the White House has been mum on the cost. However, $2.5 million has reportedly been diverted from the National Park Service to help pay for this spectacle. According to NPR, our parks are suffering and are being primarily staffed with volunteers because of the lack of money. Yet Donald Trump is diverting what little they do have for this completely unnecessary event. The FAA is closing down Reagan National Airport for an hour and a half, which not only costs money but will inconvenience American travelers.
Andrew Sherbo, a University of Denver professor who studies this type of thing, believes that the use of the Boeing known as Air Force One will cost $205,000 per hour, and the scheduled F-35s will cost $20,000 per hour. The main fireworks show has been donated by Phantom Fireworks and Fireworks by Grucci and would have cost $750,000, but fireworks by Garden States Fireworks will cost in excess of $250,000. These are only the known costs; we really have no idea how much this is truly going to cost, and it’s a complete waste. You can say one thing about Trump: He sure knows how to spend our money. Unfortunately, we’re getting nothing in return.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years