This is an adapted excerpt from the Oct. 22 episode of “The Briefing with Jen Psaki.”
This week, we learned about an incident that feels like a perfect metaphor for the moment we are in.
For decades, two globes used by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower during World War II had been carefully preserved in the custody of the U.S. Army. That is, until this year, when one of those globes ended up broken on the floor of the Defense Department — the bottom smashed down into its ornamental base, which punched a large hole directly through the continent of Antarctica.
So how did that priceless artifact end up broken? In the most predictable way possible, of course.
According to reporting from The Washington Post, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wanted Eisenhower’s globe for his office and ordered the artifact to be moved earlier this year, and the Army office in possession of the globe “had expected to consult with experts at the U.S. Army Center of Military History on how to ensure its safe transport and properly document its relocation to Hegseth’s office, according to two people familiar with the matter.” But at the time, “the history staffers were furloughed due to a partial government shutdown.”
When the experts could not be reached, according to the sources who spoke to the Post, Hegseth’s staff decided to move the globe themselves. An “apparent lack of patience appeared to be a factor,” according to a person familiar with the situation. Their impatience was especially unfortunate, given that the partial government shutdown ended the very same day the globe was clumsily damaged.
After the Post published the story, a Defense Department official provided the outlet with a brief, unattributed statement acknowledging the broken globe, writing that accidents “happen.” The statement said the globe was in the process of being repaired but did not say how much those repairs would cost or when they are expected to be completed.
For an insecure man baby, there is nothing worse than when the people taking back control from them are women.
The story is a perfect metaphor for what it feels like to live in this country right now: a country run by small, insecure, petulant little men with too much power — men who will break the world if they don’t get what they want, when they want it.
We see it every day among the impulsive man babies in President Donald Trump’s inner circle. And often the world they are wrecking isn’t just a replica.
For example, consider what is happening in Ukraine right now: For over a week, the Ukrainian army has been blindsided by the sudden slowdown of Starshield, a critical military-grade satellite system run by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX. Lives were at stake while the Ukrainian army could not operate its missile interceptor systems at full capacity, which meant more Russian missiles and drones were able to get through.
You would think when an ally like Ukraine raises the alarm about a life-threatening problem like that, leaders in the United States would immediately try to remedy the situation. But instead, we have spent the past week watching a game of “he said, he said,” as both Musk and the White House try to deflect blame for the fiasco. All the while, more Russian missiles and drones were getting through.
When members of Congress had the audacity to suggest they would investigate what happened, Musk lashed out like an angsty teenager whose parents took away his favorite video game. “Live by the sword, die by the sword,” he threatened in a statement posted to his social media platform, X. “Those who pick fights with me should understand that I will find out who is really pulling the strings and come for them, not just their puppets.”
For a full week, we have watched Trump and Musk deliver exactly what Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted, while they thumped their chests, pretending they are all-powerful but also not responsible for anything that has gone wrong.
It was only on Thursday, more than a week after Ukraine lost this critical service, that, as The Wall Street Journal first reported, Trump called Musk and told him to restore full access to Starshield.
This was all happening while Musk was hard at work trying to amass more power that he can wield recklessly. Musk-backed super PACs have now spent more than $400 million supporting Republicans in the midterm elections, according to the latest filings.
We also learned that he’s putting up $1 billion for a stake in a new megamedia company run by one of Trump’s allies. It’s a move I see as less about protecting the freedom of the press and more as an effort to exert control over the media.
There is clearly no amount of power Musk can obtain that will satisfy his own insecurity. To Musk, the world is one big, ornamental globe that he thinks he’s allowed to break.
For two years now, we have watched man babies like Hegseth, Trump and Musk act this way. Whenever their power is threatened, whenever someone dares defy them, they lash out. They hate losing control, and they hate it when someone takes power back from them. And for an insecure man baby, nothing is worse than when the people who are taking back control from them are women.
We saw that most recently on Thursday, when an angry Trump decided to jump headfirst into the controversy roiling the race for Ohio governor.
As you probably know by now, the Republican candidate in that race, Vivek Ramaswamy, has sparked national outrage for airing an ad featuring the estranged mother of his opponent, Amy Acton. The 60-second video shows Acton’s mother calling her a liar. However, it leaves out the important context that Acton was removed from her mother’s custody at age 12, when her stepfather was criminally charged with raping her (he fled the state before he could be put on trial).
The ad caused national outrage, and even Ohio’s sitting Republican governor called on Ramaswamy to take it off the air.
But when Trump was asked about his thoughts on the ad, he decided to go absolutely all-in on defending it and attacking a childhood rape victim. Speaking to reporters at the White House, the president said the press had “ganged up on a woman making a horrible statement about her daughter” and insisted Acton was “fair game.”
The truth is, Trump cannot stand the idea that he and his party have lost control of this moment. He cannot stand that most of the country has, understandably, taken the side of a woman who survived serious trauma at the hands of a man with power over her. And he cannot stand that a woman chose to take that power back.
Trump has not forgotten how a movement of women taking back power from their abusers overshadowed his first inauguration as president. He has not forgotten how a woman stood up to him in court and accused him of abusing her — and how a jury sided with that same woman against him.
There have been several moments over the last year when Trump seemed to be afraid. But nothing reveals his insecurity, nothing shows you the whites of his eyes, quite like these moments.
This moment can feel really dark at times, but here’s the good news: We are just over a week away from Election Day, when half the population will get a chance to show this group of insecure man babies exactly how they feel.
Allison Detzel contributed.
The post Trump’s man babies keep breaking what they can’t control appeared first on MS NOW.
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