A well-worn truth about regimes in crisis is that as their failures mount, internal fractures emerge and external opposition grows, they resort to diversions and distractions in order to maintain their grip on power. The more that they are in trouble, the more outlandish become the “lookee here” and arm-waving at shiny objects and glittery glitz. The Romans had a phrase to describe this phenomenon, which is often the terminal phase of a regime in crisis: “bread and circus” (which referred to the mass spectacles performed in Colosseums and the distribution of bread to citizens as things otherwise got worse for them). In Argentina during my youth, the Peronists turned this tactic on its head and offered demi-johns of red wine along with large loafs of French bread to people assembled at their rallies and demonstrations when they were in office as well as when in opposition (when able to do so). In both instances, the popular feel-good moment often presaged darker times for those in power–and their countries as well.
It appears that the MAGA administration has reached that phase. But there is a twist to this tale. There is no bread in the MAGA distraction. Instead there are higher domestic commodity prices thanks to Trump’s tariff regime; higher fuel and fuel derivative prices thanks to the US/Israeli war of aggression against Iran and the consequent closing of the Straits of Hormuz; a bloated federal deficit due to tax breaks for rich individuals and corporations even with reductions in the federal budget for non-defence expenditures; stagnated incomes and employment levels for most wage earners; culture war weirdness seeping into the education system, arts institutions and research centres; the proliferation of sports and ” predictive” betting and dodgy get-rich-quick schemes that encourage insider trading by elites and masses alike; all wrapped up in increased domestic repression in the form of ICE and its adjacent “law enforcement” agencies.
Rather than bread, the US is offered crumbs.
Then what about the circus? Unlike the absence of bread, the MAGA movement is full of circus. On top of all the other outrages, graft, corruption, excess, incompetence and crass coarseness of the Trump administration, two recent events exemplify this in bold relief.
The first is the passing of an Immigration Bill by the GOP -controlled Congress that includes US$ 1 billion earmarked for the new White House ballroom that Trump has fixated on and for which he promised only private funds would be used (after razing the historical landmark that was the East Wing of the White House without congressional consultation or approval, as per law). Trump and the GOP argue that the recent purported attempt on Trump’s life at the White House Correspondents dinner (the assailant did not make into the ballroom where Trump was located) justifies the expense in the name of security even though the White House already has multiple security layers that start outside the perimeter fences enclosing the complex’s grounds and continue into the buildings themselves. Plus, US$1 billion is a bit much even for a three story structure that will dwarf the White House itself (recognising that the White House is a 18th century-sized neo-classical-style mansion that is small and quaint by modern standards). This is pork barrel politics at its finest.
In sane societies with rational democratic elected leaders, the appropriation of US $1 billion in taxpayer money to fund what was supposed to be a privately-financed ballroom for a vainglorious president in an election year (midterms are in November, with all of the House of Representatives and one third of the Senate having seats contested, as well numerous governorships and other political offices throughout the country) would appear to be an act. of political suicide. But the US is no longer a sane society run by rational people. Instead, it has become a divided amalgam of decent people having to coexist with a hard core voting third of racists, xenophobes, hypocrites, opportunists, charlatans and grifters using the foundational narrative of “greatness” and “freedom” to cloak their selfish ambitions and (not so) private prejudices. Conservative support for the ballroom and its political underpinnings are a shining illustration of that.
The circus does not stop with a garish ballroom. In a few days the White House will host a cage fighting card on the White House South Lawn. Not a cricket match, not a tennis match, not a chess match, not polo, not basketball, not gymnastic, not fencing or ice skating, not any sort of game or sport that conveys dignity and sophistication in competitive endeavour.
No. Instead, we will be treated to the spectacle of steroid-laden brutes bashing each other into bloody submission inside an actual chainlink cage as if they were modern-era gladiators entertaining the Roman hordes (4000 spectators will be ringside on the South Lawn and millions of others are anticipated by the White House to be watching on the Washington Monument grounds across from the South Lawn and on global media outlets). Trump will be ringside but could also be the MC, depending on his mood. The prime seats will be reserved for his acolytes and associates in the political, business and religious worlds. Despite their expensive finery, they and the rest of the MAGA mob will revel in their bloodlust, shouting, cheering, booing and baying like hounds at the stylised but real violence. Given their limited historical knowledge, someone in the Trump administration–perhaps Pete “Keg”seth given that he has recent form in this regard–will make grandiose comparisons to Gladiators by referencing the movie of that name, not the actual historical era in which they were part of the Roman circus..
To finish with this Roman motif, think of contemporary Washington DC as Rome before the Fall. The MAGA movement is Rome, Trump is its Caesar, the GOP are its praetorian guard, the Potomac is its Tiber River, and its downfall is inevitable not because it will be overrun by a modern-day equivalent of the Huns, but because it is collapsing from within as I write. It may take some time, but the rot has well and truly set in and there will be a day coming in the not-to-distant future when we look at whatever emerges from the rubble of the White House East Wing (and perhaps that Arc de Trump, aka the “United States Triumphal Arch,” that he is proposing for a site looking across from the Eastern banks of the Potomac River towards Arlington National Cemetery) as something akin to the Colosseum itself–a relic of a time when excess overcame taste, and where vacuous venality lorded over ethics and civility.
It would be fitting if the Trump/MAGA legacy turned out to be a case of figuratively fiddling while the country burned. Let’s hope so because at least out of ashes can come regeneration. The US sorely needs that.