The casual, shameless willingness to simply replace reality with something more convenient remains the hardest thing to get used to about the Trump era. It’s not merely that the president behaves with callous disregard for basic norms, but that an entire media apparatus ensures his supporters rarely have to see it.
The latest example came Saturday at one of the most solemn moments a commander-in-chief can face: a dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base. Six American service members killed in the war with Iran were returning home in flag-draped coffins. And Donald Trump stood there wearing a $55 white baseball cap with gold USA and 45-47 embroidery, a piece of his own merchandise, to honor them. Unbelievably, no one standing alongside the president — not his wife Melania, not his vice president JD Vance, not his chief of staff Susie Wiles, who should have been especially attuned to the optics — intervened.
