Slide trombonist, golfer (I try), peanut butter connoisseur; Lyric Opera of Chicago, Grant Park Music Festival; Proud papa of Hamilton the goldendoodle
Dear Joe,
I wish I could sit down with you face to face and explain why so many of us were offended by the UFC fight on the South Lawn of the White House.
For me, it had nothing to do with the UFC or who showed up for the fights. The brand you and Dana have built is a bona fide American success story. More power to you. As for the fighters, in my book, anyone brave enough to put it all on the line in the arena is remarkable to witness. Their dedication and discipline inspire me. I don’t understand anyone who can’t admire that.
And as for the people who attended, I, for one, love Shane Gillis. I think he’s hilarious and brilliant. It was a show. A once-in-a-lifetime spectacle. I can’t blame anyone for wanting to witness it firsthand.
My problem is that I believe some of our public spaces are sacred. And unlike many of the great powers that came before us, these American monuments belong to all of us. Not to whoever happens to hold power at the moment.
The White House does not belong to Donald Trump. It does not belong to any President. It belongs to the people. To treat it as Caesar treated the Colosseum is antithetical to everything our founding fathers fought for.
This is not Rome. Presidents are not emperors doling out bread and circuses for the peasants. The White House is the People’s House. This “celebration” could have happened in any stadium within a stone’s throw of the South Lawn. No one would have had an issue with it.
But that was obviously Donald Trump’s whole point. By holding the event on the South Lawn, what he was saying to the rest of us is:
“This is my house. I own it. I will do with it what I please. I’ll build a colosseum and have the gladiators fight under my gaze. I’ll tear down the East Wing. I’ll pave over the Rose Garden. I’ll cover everything in gold and marble. I’ll erase the names of all the men who came before me.”
The fights were an exhibition of imperial domination, not a celebration of our 250th anniversary as a democracy.
The White House is not Buckingham Palace. It is not the Palace of Versailles. It is not the Forbidden City of Beijing. It does not belong to an emperor, or a king, or a commissar.
The White House belongs to us. All of us. The person who sits behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office is nothing more than an honored guest. A temporary caretaker.
The President is our servant. Not our Caesar.
Respectfully, Hunter
P.S. Cage match between me and Don Jr.? Your call on the venue. Anywhere but the South Lawn.
“Where is Vader today?”
“He’s paying the Rebel Alliance $300 billion dollars after defeating them completely, every day for the last four months, sir.”
How are we supposed to give a flying fuck that Elon is a trillionaire when the guy literally used his power to END programs that fed the poorest people on Earth?
Fuck that selfish asshole, and fuck his trillion dollars helping nobody but his damn self.
If Bernie's 5% annual wealth tax on billionaires had been enacted in 2012, Elon Musk would be worth less than $365 billion instead of the $1.2 trillion that he's worth today.
Elon would still be the wealthiest man alive & every family in America would have universal childcare.
HISTORY WILL REMEMBER TRUMP AS THE ONLY PRESIDENT WHO USED THE SITUATION ROOM TO COVER UP HIS INVOLVEMENT IN A PEDO SEX TRAFFICKING RING 😬
MAGA MUST BE SO PROUD 🙄
The idea vaccines cause autism was invented by Andrew Wakefield in 1998 and was so thoroughly debunked he lost his license for gross malpractice
And here we are 27 years later RFK Jr dredging up the same nonsense
Such a tiresome waste of time