“Get over it!" Elections have consequences Mulvaney told the assembled journalists. Done with denials of wrongdoing, administration officials are reframing it as right-doing — as a president’s prerogative, even his entitlement, pre-emptively authorized by voters themselves. Translation: American voters gave Trump the presidency, so it’s his to use and abuse as he wants. From now on he plans to revel in carte blanche. The wonder of the Trump administration — the jaw-dropping, brain-exploding phantasmagoria of it — is that it doesn’t bury its rottenness under layers of counterfeit virtue or use a honeyed voice to mask the vinegar inside. The rottenness is out in the open. The sourness is right there on the surface for all to see: "he’s giving anyone in America who isn’t aboard the Trump train the middle finger."
At www.nytimes.com
