Preliminary
On October 22, Diane Miller, who has served the Federation for 50 years, made her first mourning for a meal, while a few kilometers away at the White House, Trump was excited to announce a historic luxury project.
While Trump claimed that the project didn’t use government money, Hillary rejected: “It’s not your house, what a ruin!”
What kind of political crisis does this absurd contrast hide in the United States?
Autumn Parking, Anger for $75
Hundreds of people lined up waiting for trucks distributing relief food, and 74-year-old Diane Miller stood in the middle of the crowd, looking skinny.
She has served the federal and local governments for more than fifty years, and this is her first time having to rely on relief.
"I also need to have food to eat, even if it makes me fat," she said with a smile, but there was no way to hide the anger in her eyes.
She took over two heavy boxes, one containing fresh fruits and vegetables and the other containing shelf-stable food, each worth $75, which was just a microcosm of 600,000 people.
Since the government shutdown on October 1, the lives of more than 600,000 federal employees have been completely disrupted and their wages have dropped to zero.
Adrie Amman, a tax law expert with 33 years of experience in public services, was frustrated, with home loans, water and cell phone charges falling as a domino.
She was indignant: "Members of Congress and senators are paid as they are, but we are in an unpaid situation. They should experience our feelings!"
As a mother of two children and a human resources worker in the U.S. Army, Amber is in an even more difficult situation. She is in the process of divorce and has a $20,000 loan to buy a house. The shutdown has made her life even worse.
Just as these citizens who have served the United States all their lives were queuing up to receive relief, a huge hole was smashed in the east wing of the White House.
The excavator deep inside the building cleans the debris, the water pipe spray inhibits dust, and there are concrete debris and naked metal cables everywhere.
Trump’s $2.5 billion (later increased to $300 million) luxury banquet hall project has officially broken down.
He excitedly announced on social media: "I'm pleased to announce that ground is being broken on the brand new, spacious and beautiful White House Ballroom," describing it as a luxurious venue for VIP entertainment and a much-needed project for him.
$300 million, how many $75 relief boxes are these?
The answer is a full 4 million.
A number sufficient to meet the daily needs of four million families in trouble was used to build a feast hall with a capacity of 650 people.
This absurd replacement of value hurts the eye.
A “panic” performance.
Trump's "excitement" and Miller's "anger" collided over Washington.
However, behavioral analysis gives a subversive interpretation: Trump is likely to panic in his heart. This seemingly strong "creative destruction" is not due to the self-confidence of power, but to inner panic.
He is facing internal and external difficulties. At home, the government shutdown has reached the second longest record in history. The Supreme Court is about to rule whether his "tariff nuclear bomb" is illegal, which is tantamount to a political death sentence.
Internationally, his proud 24-hour promise to stop the Russian-Ukrainian war became empty, and Putin still decidedly bombed Kiev after he promised to meet.
The "goodwill" he showed to North Korea was exchanged for the "red line" drawn by multiple ballistic missiles.
He was more like wishful thinking about China's impatient and unilateral announcement of a "trade agreement."
He needed a victory, a visible victory, to cover up his inner defeat. Building a banquet hall larger than the main body of the White House was the prop of this victory. He needed to prove through this grand and physical construction that he still controls everything and is still "great."
What's more interesting is that the source of this money is also full of magical realism.
Trump said it was a "private donation," but he claimed $230 million from the U.S. government on the grounds that investigations such as the "Russia Pass" had caused "great harm" to him.
The official who approved the compensation was his former defense lawyer, Todd Branch, Deputy Attorney General, which was equivalent to granting himself a sum of money and then "donating" it to himself to repair the banquet hall.
I compensate myself, a perfect capital magic.
This panic, even he himself may be the first audience, he with a grand performance, tried to convince himself and the world that he was still the impossible "king".
A failed stage, a tacit script
Trump’s personal performance is because he stands on a huge, failed stage.
The three-power separation in the United States should have been the rope of power, but it has now collapsed.
From Trump, to Biden, to Pelosi, politicians are increasingly accustomed to using the “state machine” as a tool for the pursuit of “political private interests,” and the destruction of the rules is no longer hidden but bold.
The White House is a historical landmark designated by the U.S. federal government, and it cannot be changed for no special reason, let alone demolished.
But Trump doesn't care, and no one can effectively stop him, the rules are lapsing and oversight has idled.
Recalling that year, Nixon became the first President of the United States to resign because of the Water Gate Incident, facing the risk of being imprisoned, a time when the U.S. regulatory system was still functioning.
Today, the nature of Trump and others' "private use of public instruments" is much worse than that of Watergate Incident, but it can be safe and sound, which fully proves that the regulatory system of the United States has been disabled from top to bottom.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation urgently called for a "moratorium on demolition" and a "public review process required by law", but this call seemed so weak.
The Ministry of Finance even issued a hush order prohibiting staff from taking and sharing photos of the demolition.
Where is the credibility of a government trying to hide the truth?
When the elites at the decision-making level begin to "consume the country" instead of "serve the country", the foundation of this country has begun to waver.
Since the first government shutdown in 1977, the U.S. has played 21 similar dramas, including a maximum of 35 days of shutdown during the Trump term, which is no longer a coincidence, but a cyclical institutional stubbornness.
Who is paying for this show?
The stage has failed, the script is in play, but the final bill is sent to the least deserving.
Diane Miller's anger doesn't stop at the immediate dilemma. This black woman who devoted her life to civil rights pointed directly to the renovation of the White House: "This money could have benefited the people, but it was used to build luxury facilities."
Her voice was firm, blaming the current state of trouble on Trump, saying the shocking words: “It has to be driven out of that man.””It’s not just one person’s anger, it’s the scream of 600,000 ordinary people forgotten and sacrificed.
When a country makes loyal employees who have served it for 50 years worry about food, but allows a president to squander hundreds of millions to satisfy his vanity, this country has lost the most basic fairness and justice.
Musk’s “government efficiency ministry” has led to massive cuts, making these federal employees “targeted objects,” depriving them of their professional dignity, and collapsing their belief in the state.
It is still unknown when this people's livelihood crisis will end.
But what is foreseeable is that its far-reaching impact has only just begun.
Trump is playing the role of "prompting the United States to turn", but this is a dead end. It leads to an increasingly severe confusion of values in the United States and completely falls from the altar of the western world. Trump himself is likely to eventually become the "sacrifice" of this drama!
What the White House demolished was not only the buildings, but also the principles and bottom line that this country once adhered to.
conclusion
The White House banquet hall and relief boxes in the parking lot constitute the most absurd metaphor of our era, torturing the soul of a country.
When the price of political performance needs to be paid by the most loyal service providers, what this country is overdrawing is its own future.
When an elderly 74-year-old woman says, “You have to get him out,” is it personal anger, or an inevitable choice of an era?