The Title
The very title of the book is an exercise in profound irony. Anyone who disagrees is certainly free to write a book with the same title attached as an exercise in respectful sincerity and admiration.
Lighting
The Trump White House has lots of rules. Well, actually, it doesn’t have all that many rules, but all of them relate to what is allowed to be said to or done with him. Often these rules come across as ironic to everyone but, apparently, Trump himself. For instance, when it comes to making him up for appearances on TV, his hair is off-limits to the cosmetic artist. Okay, well, weird enough, but everybody is particular about their hair. On the other hand, the rule that lighting must be made a little more “orange” to present a warm glowing warming glow sort of emotional resonance most assuredly has an ironic tinge to it all things considered. It also raises a question that almost never comes up in the course of a person's daily life: how much orange is not enough orange?
When Geniuses Don’t Listen
One of the inescapable truths about being a self-certified stable genius is that it is a given you are not going to listen to the advice of others. Would Einstein have listened to a theory of evolution presented by Lou Costello? Of course, the situations here are otherwise completely dissimilar but at one point early on the Trump administration, NJ Gov. Chris Christie gave a very specific and unambiguous advisory warning to Trump: “Mr. President, if you fire Mueller, you’re going to be impeached. Sure as day follows night, you will be impeached.” What happened subsequently is an entire chapter in the Ironic History of the American Presidency.
“The Words that Built America”
Trump’s role in the making of a documentary titled “The Words that Built America” is a veritable pageant of irony unto itself. Firstly, the film was directed by Alexandra Pelosi, the daughter of the woman who would go onto become Trump’s primary nemesis and lead the effort to impeach Trump for abusing his Constitutional powers. Deepening this irony is that Trump’s part in the documentary was to consist of reciting the words of Article II of the Constitution, that part of the document outlining the actual powers granted the chief executive. The ironic cherry on top of this sundae is that Trump consistently had such trouble saying his lines that he grew increasingly angry and referred to the language written by men who actually—literally—founded America as being “like a foreign language.”
Kettle Fails to Recognize Pot
John Brennan had once been the Director of the CIA. He had also once been Homeland Security Adviser. He is the man who actually brief Donald Trump on Russian interference in the 2016 election. John Brennan was also making appearances on non-Fox News cable news channels where he criticized the Trump administration’s handling of various foreign policy issues. For this, he was punished by having his security clearance revoked. The first level of irony here is that a man who had headed up two of the country’s intelligence agencies no longer enjoyed the same level of security clearance as alleged slumlord and son-in-law to the President, Jared Kushner.
But wait, the ironic stew here gets even thicker. Naturally, the White House could not just come right out and say that Brennan’s security clearance had been revoked because he was being critical of the administration. Instead, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders took to the podium and stared the American people directly in the eye as she gave the official White House statement on why Brennan was no longer deserving of his standing: Brennan had recently made “a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations—wild outbursts on the Internet and television—about this administration.” The only thing messing from the moment was the sudden cessation of all ambient noise except for the chirping of crickets.
