In a new piece about the GOP's latest "sycophantic" push to curry favor with President Donald Trump, MSNBC columnist Steve Benen felt compelled to include a caveat: "In case there are any doubts, this isn't intended as satire."
New legislation put forth by Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) to make Trump's birthday a federal holiday is just the latest in a one-upmanship competition revealing "a larger pattern that’s worth appreciating" among the GOP, according to Benen.
Tenney introduced the bill last week to combine Trump's birthday observance with Flag Day on June 14 as an all-in-one federal holiday to "recognize him as the founder of America’s Golden Age.”
Benen wrote that this latest grovel means "it seems safe to assume other far-right GOP lawmakers will soon follow suit."
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"To be sure, it’s tempting to ignore this silly legislative effort, which will almost certainly go ignored," Benen wrote, before citing other recent attempts at Trump flattery:
"Tenney’s bill comes on the heels of a bill intended to carve Trump’s face into Mount Rushmore, which came on the heels of another measure to allow Trump to seek a third term. There are also pending bills to rename Dulles Airport after Trump — an effort, incidentally, that Tenney has also endorsed — as well as legislation to 'expunge' Trump’s first two impeachments."
As if that weren't enough, "In the last Congress, a Republican pushed a bill to put Trump’s face on $500 bills, and while the effort hasn’t yet been reintroduced in the current Congress, it’s probably only a matter of time," he wrote.
Benen quoted Filipe Campante, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, who posted on social media shortly after Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) put forth the "third term" idea: “The reason why this is bad is the very fact that it’s transparently ridiculous: It shows how this is becoming a Kim Jong-Un-style cult of personality, where the sycophants try to outdo one another in their groveling to get the attention of Dear Leader.”
Benen concluded, "That competition, alas, appears likely to get worse."
Read the MSNBC article here.
