File this one underneath “What could go wrong?” and in addition “Oh, hell no.”
It was solely every week in the past that President Donald Trump seized from the FBI the paperwork he had stolen and whisked away to Mar-a-Lago when he was booted from workplace in 2021. These paperwork have been proof in one in every of his many legal instances till his hand-picked choose waved a magic wand to make that go away and the Supreme Courtroom dominated that he can do no matter he desires as a result of … no matter.
Now The Atlantic stories he’s acquired his eye on an excellent greater prize: the Declaration of Independence.
To be clear, Trump isn’t trying to show the sacred founding doc that belongs to all Individuals in his cheesy Mar-a-Lago rest room the place he stashed his stolen categorised paperwork. At the very least, not that we all know of.
As a substitute, based on reporting, Trump is excited by eradicating the Declaration of Independence from the Nationwide Archives in Washington, D.C., the place anybody can go to and pay homage—at no cost—and as a substitute show it within the Oval Workplace like the top of an elephant he killed on safari.
Containers of categorised paperwork saved inside a rest room at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property in April 2021.
The declaration is rigorously housed in a dimly lit room behind thick glass to guard it from deterioration. Recreating that sort of safety within the White Home can be an infinite expense—however perhaps Trump might beg Elon Musk for an effectivity waiver as a result of whereas the federal staff who guard our nukes and defend us from epidemics is likely to be thought of a waste of cash, certainly giving Trump any trophy he desires is a superb use of taxpayer {dollars}.
The very tiniest glimmer of hope is that unnamed aides say Trump has maybe moved on from the concept of getting his grasping little fingers on the unique Declaration of Independence and is flirting with the concept of displaying a replica within the Oval Workplace as a substitute.
“President Trump strongly believes that significant and historic documents that celebrate American history should be shared and put on display,” White Home communications director Steven Cheung advised The Atlantic.
That’s not lots of reassurance as a result of we truly do know the way Trump feels about nationwide paperwork that belong to the nation, to not him. And we additionally know the extent of Trump’s respect for the important work the Nationwide Archives does is roughly zilch, which is why he fired the top of the Nationwide Archives final month.
And whereas the concept of a president stealing a sacred founding doc from the American public appears like a really dangerous Nicholas Cage film, we’ve all been right here earlier than so anybody who’s hoping The Atlantic’s reporting is fallacious or that Trump would by no means truly be so brazen, effectively, don’t maintain your breath.
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