The "Opinion" page in the February 19, 2026, edition of The New York Times included an editorial statement by Massimo Calabresi, the title of which reads like this: "Trump Is A Wrecking Ball, And He's Only Getting Started."
I am told you can read the whole statement by Calabresi by simply clicking the link that I have just provided, and that no paywall will prevent that. I certainly encourage you to read Calabresi's statement, and to see what he has to say.
To summarize his main point, Calabresi says that our current president is disturbing (and destroying) the nation's international relationships, and that "the outlines of his disruption are already clear: the collapse of multilateralism, a shift away from the liberal democratic values established after World War II and an embrace of a might-makes-right approach to national security."
Our current president is asserting that what he says, and what he thinks should be understood as a statement by the nation itself. Obviously, this is a huge misunderstanding of how the United States has actually organized its government. Our president is charged with carrying out and "executing" the laws and directions of Congress. The "president," in other words, is supposed to "do what he's told to do by the Congress," and it is not his job to tell everyone else what to do, and what to think, and what is what.
Of course, it is absolutely understandable that other nations might not get this. It seems like a lot of our own citizens don't get it, either - including hundreds of those citizens who are elected Members of Congress, and who have totally abdicated their Constitutional responsibilities.
It is important that "we, the people," make clear that what our current president is doing, and saying, does not, emphatically, "speak for us" in any official way. Again, it simply must be admitted that we, as citizens, aren't doing as good a job as we should in making this crystal clear. The "No Kings" protests organized by Indivisible are powerful and important, but our individual responsibility is to insure that our local representatives to Congress say and do what WE want them to do, so the world doesn't get the wrong impression of our nation.
We need to get a lot more "political," in other words, if we want to make clear that the current occupant of the White House should be understood for who he actually is - a whack job who is literally taking a wrecking ball not only to our continuing foreign policy goals, but even to our president's official residence, and is acting like what he happens to think is what "we" think!
Not true, right? If we want other nations to understand us (and not to succumb to the improper idea that the "president," whenever the president acts or speaks, is always acting and speaking for the nation as a whole), then Congress should enact laws, and issue statements, that make that clear.
What our "Wrecking Ball" of a president is saying, and doing, is not to be interpreted as our own statement of national purpose!
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