The first hundred days in three emojis
fist-flag-flame.
We’ve all aged at least 78 years in these first hundred days of a U.S. presidency that will at least let James Buchanan exhale a little bit, because he’s no longer the undisputed WOAT. Media outlets have been commemorating this ignominious milestone all week, though even Fox News is struggling to come up with some wins for their boy.
Even more than the one above, there’s one image that feels like it most vividly captures what this Administration stands for, how it operates, and what it’s done. One screenshot with three emojis. I speak of course of the extremely soul-crushing Houthi PC small group chat.
Cast your memory back to the ever-so-slightly less awful days of late March, when journalist Jeffrey Goldberg was accidentally added to one of U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Signal group chats. I remember Signal from my political campaign days, and even at the time I thought that its highly touted privacy and security features—namely, that the texts could be set to self-destruct—were a flimsy match for the power of screenshots. Shoutout to Goldberg for proving me right, because once the White House started lying about whether this group chat discussed sensitive or classified information, he and The Atlantic unleashed screenshots of the entire conversation.
The conversation is enthralling in the most stomach-turning way. It’s not just that these people are so reckless with matters of national security. Or that what they’re discussing and carrying out is morally repugnant and seems highly fucking illegal. It’s also the contemptuous worldviews that these people share, against everyone who isn’t in the chat with them (and, presumably, one person who is). It’s the seams that are already starting to split between Trump and his administration, considering he isn’t in the chat, and his vice president is complaining about him.
But literally-just-now-ousted national security advisor Michael Waltz is the one who provided the most salient visual for all of this, with his punctuation to the news that this questionably legal mission was complete:
There’s the fact that a national security advisor is sending emojis about official military actions at all, which perfectly illustrates the seriousness with which these evil muppets approach their life-or-death jobs. But each emoji also feels heavy with its own meaning.
👊 - the fist bump
“Toxic masculinity” seems too gentle a term for what the Trump administration cultivates and runs on. It’s radioactive machismo, dialed up to absolutely cartoonish and lethal levels. “The cruelty is the point” became a maxim back in the first Trump administration, and that too seems too gentle at this point. Cruelty is the primary operating principle, even more than cronyism and self-enrichment. Respect, empathy, and anything resembling critical thought are all explicitly shunned. Ignorance to how the government or the economy work is an asset, in that they don’t need to care about things they don’t understand, and they can paint anyone who does understand as weak, useless little ants. It all reinforces a gleefully chauvinistic mindset that gives people permission to indulge their worst, pettiest, and loneliest selves.
🇺🇸 - the American flag
Meanwhile, the emboldened Administration keeps cloaking its deeply anti-American and anti-human actions in the stars and stripes. (And I said anti-American, not un-American, so take your finger off that comment trigger.) Trump is terribly intuitive about image craft, and the visual presentation his admin has adopted flows from there. It’s a lot of egregiously patriotic aesthetics, reaffirming the strength of the state and its leader, as well as the subjugation of the other.
This is pretty basic authoritarian imagery at play. It’s ghoulish.
🔥 - flames…flames, on the side of my face.
All of this is bringing about the utter destruction of any and every institution, of the rule of law, and of any faith the world may have in us as a country. Every senior member of the Trump administration is extremely comfortable either ignoring their Constitutional responsibility, or lying about said responsibility or even what they’re doing that brings about Constitutional questions. Once we’re able to start rebuilding any of this, it’ll be the work of generations. Meanwhile, Chuck Schumer is literally sending strongly-worded letters, the DNC Chair is fighting with his Vice-Chair over whether they should let the party inch towards being somewhat and slightly progressive, and Hakeem Jeffries and Cory Booker are doing whatever this is.
I am heartened by the fact that legitimate pushback is coming. It turns out that even Trump-appointed judges have a line, and that line appears to be that pesky “rule of law” thing. It’s good to know that, at least in some corners, the word “conservative” still means “a strict and narrow interpretation of legality” and not “willing to run with whatever Trump is doing in a hope to get some kind of power or proximity out of it.” (The ostriches at SCOTUS notwithstanding.)
So I’m encouraged by this, and by the federal workers who are also pushing back, and by the Black women who are pointing us towards hope and liberation.1 None of what Trump and his people do is inevitable. Even if the checks and balances are inadequate, they are still (1) available, and (2) profoundly necessary. This is unquestionably the Bad Time, but it doesn’t have to stay that way.
But yeah, for all these reasons, Mike Waltz’s fist-flag-flame is how this outlet is commemorating these first 100 days.
Ugh that hat on hat photo of Musk. He has such a punchable face.
All I could think about with the picture of the basic white lady is "are low rise jeans THAT back in style?" It's a sad world when that caught my eye more than the shirtless men imprisoned in the background. It is the Bad Times I fear.