Opinion

In 1998, Rep. Dan Burton of Indiana, a truly loathsome character at the time but now almost angelic in comparison to today's characters, told the Indianapolis Star that Bill Clinton was "a scumbag" and that's why he was "after him."

It was a really big deal. It sent shock waves through Washington. I recall being gobsmacked at the language. It triggered intense political backlash, with Democrats attempting to remove him from his committee chairmanship. He was never formally investigated, as the Dems demanded. The House Republican leadership ultimately blocked all disciplinary resolutions, allowing him to retain his position despite his potty mouth.

You can hear it in their voices, the words they use, the issues brought up, the frustration evolving into tinged anger, and the conviction — no more, you're pushing it, really pushing it.

Republican senators have been talking about Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth a lot more lately, and that's bad news at a particularly bad time for him, as he already faces eight articles of impeachment once the House returns (assuming it ever returns).

Two very different demos have recently risen to social media prominence: GenX women and our polar opposites, the MAGA Trad Wives. The starkly opposed messaging is making a real case for the “nurture” part of the “nature vs. nurture” argument during a time when women’s rights are constantly in flux.

GenX Women — aka the “Forgotten Generation”— have emerged as a hugely influential group thanks to being the (better) half of the last fully analog generation on the planet. Too many GenX men are MAGA, which is why liberal GenX women have found our collectively loud social media voice amid our current AI garbage fire of MAGA fakery. We are rightfully raging as we refuse to remain silent during our menopause, from the peri- to the post-menopausal years. Black women in particular are leading the female GenX trends, and rightly so.

Is it just me, or has anyone else also noticed that our president has been melting down even more than usual lately?

That whole “no guardrails” thing, combined with being surrounded by sycophants who are only too eager to do all of his bidding without questioning it and Congressional Republicans who almost without exception remain scared to death of him – plus immunity – has produced a monster who believes no court order applies to him and no law can stop him from doing whatever the hell he wants.

I was reading a story about how Donald Trump had so thoroughly destroyed the Kennedy Center, a once-great arts institution reduced to a pathetic shell by one man’s seemingly deep-seated enmity at John F. Kennedy’s ongoing, and entirely justified, veneration. It was clear that Trump’s goal all along has been to raze the venue and rebuild it as the Trump Center, so egomaniacal is he.

The thing is, this sort of pitiful move is entirely on brand for this president. He is at war with America’s history, the goal being to erase it and install himself as at once the demolisher and self-appointed savior of everything that has been and will be. He is all about marking his territory with toxic urine. If it doesn’t bear his name and/or likeness, he believes it carries no value and must be wiped from the face of the earth.

Donald Trump made history this week when he achieved something none of his predecessors ever could: the lowest approval ratings since approval ratings began. He’s languishing at -26, according to YouGov polling. Nowhere near the winning MAGA was promised.

It’s almost as if he’s deliberately trying to look as bad as possible so he can keep embarrassing our country on the global stage. Witness his welcome for Chinese President Dictator Xi Jinping, which was an exercise in full cringe. Oddly bundled into a winter coat with black leather gloves covering his badly bruised hands, Trump tried to show off for Xi during a military flyover, but ended up wincing in fear while saluting absolutely no one.

Sabrina Haake is a political analyst and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. Subscribe to her free Substack, The Haake Take.

Thursday’s ruling from U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly putting an end to Trump’s White House media ban was lamentable for the speed with which it was issued. An exhausted nation was enjoying a break from Trump’s vitriol dominating every channel but, alas, the reprieve was short-lived.

As President Xi heads back to China, one imagines him, like any other tourist returning home after a long trip, meeting with old friends who are sure to ask how his trip went — and to have him recount the highlights.

This is what I imagine Xi would say, translated into English, of course:

Sabrina Haake is a political analyst and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. You can subscribe to her free Substack, The Haake Take.

Veterans are standing in the middle of D.C.’s Memorial Circle at rush hour with banners denouncing plans for Trump’s arch. Their continuing protest, which started on Memorial Day, features a replica arch and an urgent plea to “protect and defend the solemnity and honor of this hallowed ground.”

While there is no doubt that Trump lives primarily in his own world of unicorns and devotion from nearly all, he apparently keeps at least one foot grounded in reality — a reality even he understands to be on the brink of breaking him.

Given that, Trump is reacting in predictable ways. After all, he has far more on the line than a simple election loss.