Preliminary
On October 21st, the U.S. federal government was shut down for 22 days, and more than 600,000 employees were cut off their pay.
But just then, Trump increased the White House renovation budget from $2.5 billion to $300 million, and began demolishing the 123-year-old East Wing building, which was criticized by Hillary Clinton: This is not your house, what to destroy.
Why does Trump want to build a big project at this time? Why does the American system condone this absurd behavior?
When a bulldozer entered the White House, 600,000 Americans ran for relief
The bullshit of the bullshit sounded in the east wing of the White House, the excavator deep inside the building cleansed the debris, the water pipes sprayed dust, the windows were broken, and huge holes appeared in the walls.
Photographs on the scene show that the demolished channel stretches across most of the area on the south side of the eastern wing, with concrete debris and naked metal wires everywhere.
Meanwhile, in a parking lot in suburban Washington, hundreds of federal employees were waiting to receive food aid.
Diane Miller, 74, stood in the middle of the crowd. This veteran civil servant who has served the federal government for more than 50 years, told everyone's dilemma, "How do I eat?"
She received two boxes of dwarfs, each containing fresh fruits and vegetables and storage-resistant foods, which were essential choices for her livelihood.
Since the government shutdown on October 1, her salary has dropped to zero, and receiving benefits has become a daily routine.
Such a scene is being staged across the United States. On October 22nd, more than 310 food boxes were delivered in less than an hour in a relief distribution event in Washington.
Each box was worth $75, which was a decent drop in dignity for the once decent middle-aged.
Even more outrageously, congressmen and senators are paying loans, and ordinary federal employees are in an unpaid situation, “they should experience our feelings and stop receiving wages.”
Trump excitedly announced on social media: "I am pleased to announce that the new, spacious and beautiful White House Ballroom has broken ground on the White House grounds."
He described the new banquet hall as a luxurious place for guest entertainment and said, “We’re undergoing a major construction that you may hear from time to time.”
The Trump administration stressed that the banquet room funds came from Trump himself and private donors and did not use taxpayer funds, but Trump did not publish a specific list of any donors.
On October 15th, Trump hosted a dinner at the White House to personally introduce the White House expansion plan to executives of technology, finance and defense industries. At that time, he said that the project had received donations from dozens of companies such as Apple, Amazon and Lockheed Martin, and all the funds had been put in place.
Critics have warned that after the new banquet hall is built, the president or more conveniently provides resources to political allies and donors, increasing the risk of “power money trading.”
Miller’s anger goes beyond the situation ahead, referring directly to the $2.5 billion White House renovation project: “This money would have benefited the people, but it would have been used to build luxury facilities.”
The black woman, who has devoted her life to the cause of civil rights, blames Trump for the current state of trouble, and says firmly: “The man must be pulled out.”
When "your own people" approve their claims, the three powers are divided.
Trump’s magic operation is far more than that.
Recently, Trump claimed $230 million from the U.S. government, on the grounds that he encountered a series of investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice in the incidents of "TongRumen" and "Leak Gate", which caused him "great harm".
But Trump is now the president of the United States, and his move is “I damn myself.”
Even more shockingly, the official who approved the compensation was U.S. Justice Department Deputy Todd Branch, who previously served as Trump’s defense lawyer.
Without independent supervision, the approver is still “his own,” which is equivalent to Trump publicly taking away the money of American taxpayers for a reason.
This situation is no longer simply breaking the rules, it is destroying America’s national heritage, undermining America’s institutions and foundations.
The United States has adopted a system of separation of powers. Logically speaking, this kind of approval power should not be concentrated in one person. However, in recent years, the United States 'partisanship has become more serious.
Not only Trump, but his predecessor, Biden, and old rival Pelosi, are using the U.S. “national machine” to seek “political private interests” and pressure “political opponents.”
When the elites in the decision-making sector take “politics as the stage, power as the decoration,” they are no longer serving the country, but consuming the country, a situation that ultimately gives rise to Trump’s pursuit of “unlimited power” to whatever he wants to.
Former Congressman Joe Walsh angrily declared, "If I can win the 2028 U.S. election, I will drive bulldozers and invite people to bring tools to tear down Trump's banquet hall."
But there were also supporters of Trump who claimed, “The White House was old, what’s wrong with the demolition of the reconstruction?”
And this is what Trump wants to see, as long as the United States has people to argue, his move has supporters, he can not lose.
From Nixon’s resignation to Trump feast, the quality of the U.S. system crumbled.
At that time, Nixon became the first President of the United States to resign due to the Water Gate Incident, and also faced imprisonment.
Successor Ford chose to pardon Nixon, but he soon suffered a midterm election defeat and lost the U.S. general election.
But now, Trump and others "public and private", character much worse than Nixon's behavior, but nothing happened, obviously, the U.S. regulatory system, from top to bottom, has failed, this situation fully proves that the United States is indeed declining.
Many people don't understand that more than 30 years after gaining the status of "global hegemony", the United States has been in decline. Now the answer is very clear.
The White House is a historic landmark designated by the U.S. federal government and cannot be changed without special reasons, let alone demolished.
But Trump doesn’t care, and no one can stop him, that disregard for history and rules reflects the deep crisis of American political culture.
It took only a few decades for the United States to go from institutional awe to institutional instrumentalization. The speed of this degradation is shocking. When the institution becomes a tool of political struggle, rather than a framework to restrain power, the vitality of the institution ends.
History tells us that the decline of big countries often begins with the decline of institutional quality, and the United States seems to be repeating this historical law.
Political polarization makes compromise impossible, makes cooperation a luxury, and makes systems useless. This institutional recession is more dangerous than economic recession because it erodes the foundation of national governance.
When the authority of the system collapses, the society will fall into chaos and the country will decline. The United States is going through such a process, and it may be faster than we think.
What the White House has demolished is not only the brick walls, but also the foundation of the United States 'system.
It can be predicted that the U.S. political ecology, legal system, regulatory system, etc., are at risk of being destroyed, and the White House demolition is not only the building, but also the principles and bottom lines, which is a deadly blow to the foundations of the U.S. system.
When power is unconstrained, corruption will breed, and when the system loses its authority, chaos will come.
Trump’s pattern of behavior exhibits the absurdity of power without constraints, a psychological trajectory ranging from “panic” to “no intention of leaving” that exposes the expansion of an ambition of a political figure.
Historical comparisons prove the comprehensive degradation of the quality of the U.S. system, and the Nixon-era system has been able to play a constraining role, but no one can be held accountable for the worse behavior.
This trajectory of change reveals the dangerous transformation of the United States from institutional awe to institutional instrumentalization. Institutional collapse is a gradual and systematic process.
This phenomenon indicates an accelerating trend of institutional decline in the United States. The political ecology will further deteriorate in the short term and the authority of the legal system will collapse in the medium term.
In the long run, this could lead to a fundamental twist in the status of major powers, and a institutional crisis would profoundly affect the international order.
The future of the * system is facing a severe test, which is a warning to the whole world. When the system loses its binding force, breaking the rules becomes a means to gain power.
This is not only a crisis in the United States, but also a warning to the world’s democratic systems that democracy is not eternal and needs continuous maintenance and renewal, and that even if there is an institutional crisis such as the United States, the world needs to rethink the future of the democratic system.
The quality of the system determines the fate of the nation, a historical law that is being verified in the United States, and the decline of the United States may be the inevitable result of the institutional decline.
When the elites take power as a decoration, the foundations of the country are shaken, and this is not a rumor, but a fact that is happening.
What America needs is not a replacement of the president, but a rebuilding of the system, but it may take a generation or even generations of effort.
History has shown us that restoring the system is much harder than destroying it, and the United States may be paying a heavy price for it.
conclusion
Trump’s absurdity is not a personal issue, but a concentrated reflection of America’s institutional decline.
When the system loses its binding power, breaking the rules becomes a means of gaining power.
This is not only a crisis in the United States, but also a warning to the * system all over the world.