The Drapes of War

A scene from our deeply unserious president

But enough about that war. Let me tell you about these drapes.

Day 4: Rubio points the finger at Israel; markets crash; MAGA bickers; the war spreads; and Congress prepares to surrender (again).

But as historians struggle with understanding this moment, I devoutly hope they take note of the scene that unfolded in the Oval Office on March 2, 2026:

Trump still has not coherently explained his reasons for going to war, but as Susan Glasser recounts, he promised “to remain intensely focused on defeating Iran for however long it takes.”

“I don’t get bored,” he insisted. “There’s nothing boring about this.”

Forty-six seconds later, he began waxing about the “very, very beautiful” new White House ballroom he’s building, which he thinks will be “the most beautiful ballroom anywhere in the world.”

Indeed, writes Matt Labash, Trump “took time out of his busy schedule to once again not seriously explain his new elective war in Iran.”

Instead, he explained to the American people — whose sons will fight and die (six so far) in Operation Ego Stroke — how seriously proud he is of the gold drapes he picked out.

His Sun-King curtains are currently covering a White House gap-in-the-wall, on the other side of which lies the big beautiful construction hole-in-the-ground where his equally big beautiful ballroom will eventually sit. Which he still promises will come in “under budget,” even if the budget has changed three times, from $200 million to $400 million. Because our Very Serious President doesn’t just like to indiscriminately bomb Iranian girls’ schools. (Killing 175 people. Oopsie! Sorry, schoolgirls, but fog of war/shit happens.) No, he also likes to dance and pick out fabrics!

This is not a parody. This actually happened.¹

Exit take via Joyce Carol Oates, “Fortunately US didn't elect a woman president to prattle on cluelessly about interior decorating in a time of war; if so, calls for her impeachment would be immediate.” Chef’s kiss.

Happy Tuesday.

A note to readers: Keeping track of Trump’s corruption is, unfortunately, a full-time job. So is chronicling his attacks on American values and institutions. That’s why I do this, and why independent media has become so important. This is the challenge of our time and the fight of our generation. But we can’t do it without your help.

I’m not promising you a safe space. At times I’m going to push you to get out of your bubbles. But I can promise to tell you what I think, and provide straight, sober, sane, and occasionally snarky commentary. Plus, dogs.

Don’t Miss These Stories (BFDs)

Trump surrenders to Big Law. The Quislings hardest hit. “Trump Administration Abandons Efforts to Impose Executive Orders on Law Firms”- The New York Times

With a brief due this week, Justice Department lawyers told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that they were no longer interested in pursuing the cases and were voluntarily asking the court to dismiss them.

The decision is the White House’s most significant acknowledgment that the executive orders cannot be successfully defended in court. The move is particularly striking given that some firms opted to reach deals in a bid to head off executive orders that President Trump’s Justice Department said it would no longer stand behind.

TL;DR. It’s all bullshit wrapped in batshit. Trump’s Case for War With Iran Faces Growing Scrutiny - WSJ

U.S. officials and lawmakers with access to classified information, along with experts who have spent their careers poring over public data and government reports, say the administration’s assertions are incomplete, unsubstantiated, or flat-out wrong.

Judge blocks arrest and detention of some lawful refugees in Minnesota | The Guardian

In an order on Friday, the court said the administration’s approach had effectively been “terrorizing” refugees by subjecting them to arrest and potentially indefinite detention despite their lawful status. The judge concluded that federal immigration law does not give the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) authority to detain refugees simply because more than one year has passed since their arrival in the country.

“Decades ago, as a nation, we made a solemn promise to refugees fleeing persecution: that after rigorous vetting, they would be welcomed to the United States and given the opportunity to rebuild their lives,” the opinion said. “The government’s new policy breaks that promise – without congressional authorization – and raises serious constitutional concerns.

“The new policy turns the refugees’ American Dream into a dystopian nightmare,” it adds.

“A Story Bigger Than Iran”

I want to stipulate right away that I radically agree with Garry Kasparov here: He argues that the Trump Administration’s thuggish attack on the AI Company, Anthropic, is “the most important story in American democracy.”

I’m referring to the drama between the DoD and artificial intelligence giants Anthropic and OpenAI. It revealed the bravery of one man—Anthropic’s Dario Amodei—and the cravenness of another—Sam Altman of OpenAI.

Anthropic lost its $200 million contract with the Pentagon because its CEO, Dario Amodei, insisted upon responsible limits on military and intelligence applications of AI. More importantly, Anthropic became the first American firm to be labeled a “supply chain risk,” meaning no company doing business with the US military can do business with Anthropic. Just as quickly as the government blacklisted Anthropic, OpenAI’s Sam Altman turned over his technology without real guardrails.

This AI saga is more significant than the situation in the Middle East because it impacts not only the conflict in Iran, but every future action taken by this administration and its successors. It’s almost impossible to overstate the impact that AI will have in the years to come.

Read the whole thing here.

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Conservative legal commentator Andy McCarthy also radically agrees, comparing the Administration’s actions to a “A Bill of Attainder–Style Extortion.”

Obviously, there is a lot going on in the world, but even with war now raging in the Middle East, none of what’s happening may be more consequential than the Trump administration’s extortionate attempt to kill a top American technology company — one that has provided essential assistance to national security. The president and the Defense Department are in a snit over a contract dispute with the tech giant Anthropic, involving how controversial artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities are incorporated in our national defense.

The AI at issue is derived from “Claude,” as Anthropic large language models are collectively known. The dispute is a critical one. It illustrates how the rapid evolution of AI is racing beyond our law’s capacity to keep up — to even grasp what’s at stake, much less do sensible regulatory line-drawing.

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And don’t miss what Anne Applebaum had to say about Trump’s war on Anthropic:

Today’s Full Podcast

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Tuesday dogs

My wife’s Substack today has a detailed (and completely accurate) description of living with dogs who are always on alert: “The Insights of Dogs” - by J. F. Riordan. As I write this, Baby Eli is under my desk, just waiting for the moment he thinks I’m done… and the fun can begin.

The moment Eli thinks you are awake, he comes to sit on you. He weighs 140 pounds, so this is a persuasive move on his part.

1. The president really is quite proud of those drapes.

“See that nice drape? When that comes down right now you see a very, very deep hole, but in about a year and half from now, you’re gonna see a very, very beautiful building. And there’s your entrance to it right there,” Trump said, pointing to gold curtains behind him. “In fact, I think I’ll even, I’ll save money on the doors because you can’t get more beautiful than that. I picked those drapes in my first term. I always liked gold, but I think we can save a lot of money. I just saved, I just saved curtains.

“It’ll be spectacular, it’ll be the most beautiful ballroom. I believe it’s because I’ve built many a ballroom. I believe it’s going to be the most beautiful ballroom anywhere in the world,” Trump said, before going on to rant about how his wife, Melania, doesn’t like the construction.