President Donald Trump hasn’t exactly been subtle about his indifference toward Congress’ feelings on his planned 250-foot arch near Arlington National Cemetery. During an event in the Oval Office last week, the president told reporters he doesn’t need congressional approval to build the arch.
“We don’t need anything from Congress,” he said.
Author Charlie Sykes said he believes Trump’s disinterest in congressional approval shows there’s “a red line.”
According to Sykes, Trump’s desperate attempts to work around congressional approval show the president’s grip on his caucus — and his ability to whip them into supporting all his whims and desires — may finally be slipping.
“Members of Congress do not want to vote for the ballroom … and they sure as heck do not want to explain to their constituents why the time when we have $39 trillion in national debt, they will build an arch, which no one asked for, no one can use, and for which he’s provided really no rationale,” Sykes told told MS NOW’s Ayman Mohyeldin on Thursday on “Deadline: White House.”
Sykes, author of the Substack newsletter “To the Contrary,” said the planned arch was the very definition of a “vanity project,” telling Mohyeldin, “[If] you look in the dictionary — ‘vanity project’ — it would be Donald Trump in the middle of a war, in the middle of economic anxiety, building a 250-foot arch, which will obscure the view of Arlington National Cemetery.”
He continued, “At least the ballroom, they tried to put some lipstick on it by saying, ‘We need it for security,’ or these various other things. What the hell do you do with an arch? You know, other than basically create another monument to Donald Trump’s massive ego.”
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While some Republicans in Congress may have finally found their footing to oppose Trump, Sykes told MS NOW the same can’t be said for members of his administration, who continue to serve as a rubber stamp for the president.
“You’re seeing what Todd Blanche, the acting Attorney General, is willing to do with the Department of Justice,” Sykes said, referring to the newly announced “anti-weaponization” fund, which could dole out millions to the president’s supporters and allies. “It’s obvious by now that the qualification for being part of any of these alleged independent agencies is not just loyalty to Donald Trump, it is a willingness to take the most egregious actions.”
“It is if Donald Trump is testing them by saying, ‘What can I get away with? What can I make you do? What will you approve?” he added.
Skyes said the fund, the ballroom and the arch all serve as proof that Trump “foresees the federal government as an extension of his own ego.”
You can watch Sykes’ full comments in the clip at the top of the page.
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW. She was previously a segment producer for “AYMAN” and “The Mehdi Hasan Show.”