Performative toughness, algae blooms, and Pride

Even Republicans tire of Trump
 
The widening gap between presidential rhetoric and reality is a destabilizing embarrassment to America.

I am writing on a lovely Capital Pride weekend. A block south of the bakery where I’m having my morning coffee, the National Park Service erected heavy steel security fencing around Dupont Circle on Friday morning. They said, “The park area will be closed to the public to provide for public health and safety and protect natural and cultural resources in Dupont Circle Park.”

That was just a pretext for spitefulness. The crime rate in D.C. was down before Trump brought in the National Guard. But it was not the worst lie his administration told lately.

After his disastrous multimillion-dollar effort to beautify the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool led to its “American flag blue” being replaced by the vomitous green of an algae bloom, his administration said in denial:

“The Reflecting Pool water is crystal clear, and our National Park Service team is now vacuuming up the dead algae resting on the bottom of some parts of the Reflecting Pool – just like the destroyed Iranian Navy resting on the bottom of the Persian Gulf.”

I suppose we should be grateful they did not compare the dead algae to the Iranian schoolchildren our military murdered at the start of the war.

Trump always blames his failures on others. Now, without evidence, he blames his Reflecting Pool debacle on “Dumocrat”vandalism.

The Memorandum of Understanding that Trump signed in Versailles to get out of his disastrous war against Iran looked more like a surrender. All he got was a promise to open the Strait of Hormuz, which was open before the war started. Iran, without renouncing its nuclear ambitions, was to receive hundreds of billions in its own funds that were locked in other countries’ banks.

Conservatives were furious. Israel’s largest-circulation newspaper, Israel Hayom, owned by Trump megadonor Miriam Adelson, ran an open letter denouncing the agreement, accusing Trump of betrayal and calling him a failure.

We have been hostage long enough to right-wing anger. Israeli expansionism does not erase war crimes nor place Israeli and American leaders above the law, any more than Pete Hegseth’s performative toughness conceals his unfitness to run the Defense Department.

Israel said it would not be bound by the MOU. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continued bombing Lebanon, which is a deal-breaker. Trump rage-tweeted threats to the Iranian delegation meeting Vice President JD Vance in Switzerland.

Sen. Ted Cruz said, “Giving billions of dollars to theocratic lunatics who want to kill us is not a good idea.” I agree. We need to stop funding Republicans.

Trump’s attacks on the press and on the separation of powers cannot shield him from the consequences of his and Netanyahu’s ruinous war, his many other acts of misrule, or his sheer aggressive stupidity.

When Trump is finally gone, the cleanup will not be quick nor easy. Our natural contentiousness will still be exacerbated by social media with their fostering of alternate reality.

Former President Obama offered a corrective in launching his presidential center on the South Side of Chicago:

“The exhibits here focus not just on policies, but on the shared values that make democracy possible, a belief … that no one is above the law or beneath its protection, a belief in checks and balances in our government and an accountability that comes with an independent judiciary and a robust, free press.”

Obama notes, “Algorithms keep feeding us a steady stream of distraction and outrage.” Yet we persist despite all the fences and provocations thrown up against us.

A portion of 17th Street north of me was closed on Saturday for a Pride block party sponsored by Absolut. We are still finding our sponsors and our spaces. We are still celebrating, even as the struggle continues. The bigots Trump exploits, locked in their ideological bubble, are afraid of that.

Fear can kill; but most of us will endure, and we will be the stronger for it. Resilience is also the lesson of Juneteenth, a federal holiday that commemorates the enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas at the end of the Civil War.

Decades ago, some people objected to Gay Pride being celebrated on Father’s Day. But there are more things to celebrate than there are days on the calendar. We must learn to coexist. I am uplifted, not threatened, by the strength Black people have shown over generations. I raise my glass to the human spirit they exemplify. No fence can stop it.

Richard Rosendall is a writer and activist who can be reached at [email protected].
Copyright © 2026 by Richard J. Rosendall. All rights reserved.