The List

The U.S. Army turned 250 years old. Trump turned 79. Guess whose party it became. A massive military parade rolled through Washington on Trump’s birthday, with Trump front and center as the focal point of the whole spectacle. The Army’s 250th anniversary — a genuine milestone worth celebrating — got absorbed into a made-for-TV event built around one man’s image. This is what authoritarian aesthetics look like when they’re trying to seem normal. You don’t announce “I’m having a military parade for myself.” You find a legitimate occasion, you attach yourself to it, and you make sure the cameras can’t tell the difference between honoring the institution and honoring you. ...

He says he’s joking. He’s not joking. Trump told NBC he was “not joking” about a third term and that there are “methods” to make it happen. The 22nd Amendment is not ambiguous. Two terms. That’s it. That’s been the law since 1951. There is no method. There is no loophole. There is no constitutional path. But he keeps saying it. And that’s the point. This is how authoritarian instincts work in a democracy — you don’t announce you’re going to torch the Constitution, you just keep suggesting it’s negotiable. You say it’s a joke when people push back. You say you’re “not joking” when the crowd cheers. You float the idea until it stops sounding outrageous and starts sounding like just another political debate. ...

On his first day back in office, Trump pardoned the people who attacked the Capitol to stop the certification of an election he lost. Not a few disputed cases — sweeping clemency for most January 6 defendants, sentence commutations for 14 others, and orders to dismiss pending cases and release prisoners immediately. Let that sink in. People who beat cops, smashed windows, and tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power got pardoned. On day one. Before he did anything else. ...

In 2005, Donald Trump was caught on a hot mic telling Billy Bush exactly who he is. “I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.” That’s not gossip. That’s not a rumor. That’s him, on tape, in his own voice, bragging about sexual assault. He apologized for it in 2016 — called it “locker room talk.” Then later tried to claim the tape was fake. Access Hollywood went on air to set the record straight: “The tape is very real. He said every one of those words.” ...