The Un-American President

[dalton99a]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/24/opinion/president-trump-ice-immigration.html

https://archive.ph/CvQsb

The Un-American President
Jan. 24, 2026, 7:00 a.m. ET
By Maureen Dowd

I saw the charismatic Italian conductor Gianandrea Noseda lead the National Symphony Orchestra on Thursday, in a program called “Songs of Destiny & Fate.”

The Brahms, Bach and Vivaldi were a soothing tonic to President Trump’s soundtrack, which is akin to the stabbing, shrieking Bernard Herrmann score for Hitchcock’s “Psycho” shower scene.

Noseda began by conducting “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Even before Trump blasphemously interloped onto the Kennedy Center’s name, Horrible Trump Culture War Enforcer Ric Grenell had dictated that all National Symphony Orchestra concerts begin with the national anthem.

I’m always happy to put my hand on my heart and listen to the ode to our flag and this “heav’n rescued land.” My father always had an American flag flying and took it down at sundown as a sign of respect, which was the custom then. When I won a Pulitzer, New York’s very cool senator, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, sent me a flag that had flown over the Capitol, which I cherish.

But it felt tinny to be force-fed “The Star-Spangled Banner” by our solipsistic president and his creepy sycophants, who show nothing but disdain for the Constitution and American values. It was our country’s destiny to reflect ideals that made us an incandescent beacon for democracy. But Trump has pulverized those ideals. We are now seen as sinister, selfish, unruly and at everybody’s throats.

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