An Immodest Proposal for Trump

: Jamie Stiehm on Aug 12, 2026

You may wonder why President Donald Trump is doing everything he can, day by day, to destroy faith in democracy in little and large ways, on the job day and night. I have an answer that will presently be revealed.

It involves a modest proposal.

Here in the capital, our hearts are hurting over his huge new White House ballroom construction (paused by the courts for a few weeks), shuttering of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and his proposed "Arc de Trump," which would overshadow the gorgeous, gleaming Lincoln Memorial and the shrine's sightline to Arlington National Cemetery.

Don't even get me started on the historic Reflecting Pool and Lafayette Square, fenced off from the public.

This city is full of grace notes that the president is systematically snuffing out. Call it first-degree architectural murder. But the worst is yet to come later this month: an IndyCar Grand Prix race around the National Mall at speeds of up to 100 mph, putting our precious national museums at risk.

The vibrations alone could compromise the Smithsonian Castle and buildings that hold our storied national heritage inside their walls. But museums are "fake news" anyway, in Trump's jargon. He is taking steps to erase the tales the museums tell, especially of slavery.

Unforgivably, he let a white South African native of the apartheid era close the U.S. Agency for International Development on his first day in office.

Could Trump be worse? Oh yes.

In a time of extreme climate change, he clings to fossil fuels and says he "hates" wind renewable energy. Also, in burning summers, he wants to end water hydration breaks for workers outside in farm fields and delivery trucks.

He lets scenic national parks take severe budget cuts. Women are subject to "abortion surveillance." He is running a secret police and mass deportation operation that we the people know little about.

After a poor performance managing the COVID-19 pandemic, causing tens of thousands of deaths, he is letting the fine Dr. Anthony Fauci take the blame.

He started a war on Iran with a zealot, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, just because, without asking or telling Congress.

He shows no concern over the most serious issue of all heading into the fall midterms: affordability, affordability, affordability. It ain't no "hoax." Meanwhile the gap between the nation's rich and poor is yawning ever wider.

All this while Trump plunders and profits from the presidency to the tune of $2.2 billion. His Cabinet and circle are stuffed with billionaires. Affordability doesn't come up on the golf course.

Trump has zero compassion for millions about to lose Medicaid coverage. It is truly remarkable how little he cares -- and how he doesn't even pretend to care.

Speaking of health care, his Cabinet secretary Bobby Kennedy Jr. is ludicrously opposed to vaccine schedules and let a measles outbreak go unchecked. Kennedy may also undermine the poverty program for young children, Head Start.

Cabinet secretary Pete Hegseth, the Pentagon chief, has no idea how to win a war from his Fox News training.

Vain and foolish, Hegseth preens before Trump, who likes the slick look: "Nobody looks better on television than that guy." But we're running out of munitions fast.

Women and Black leaders were fired from the military, thanks to Hegseth, and that's just another outrage.

"A lot of people are saying ..." That's Trump's go-to line when he brags about how great he is.

(No, I'll tell you what a lot of people are saying. They're saying you're a crazy and cruel authoritarian.)

The only explanation is that Trump wants to kill us all. He hates Washington most, after his violent Jan. 6 plot failed to overturn the 2020 election.

So we are at Ground Zero. That's a palpable feeling when helicopters fly low overhead and soldiers are seen on the streets. But he is enraged at everybody for losing in 2020.

Jonathan Swift, the famed satirist, must have had Trump in mind when he wrote, "Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it."

Swift suggested in his 1729 essay "A Modest Proposal" that the rich and poor were so far apart in Ireland that the poor could sell their children for the rich to enjoy eating them.

Don't give Trump any ideas.

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The author may be reached at JamieStiehm.com. To find out more about Jamie Stiehm and other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, please visit creators.com.

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