HarryShearer.com

The media have not called much attention to this, but I will: the Felon-in-Chief’s actions banning certain press orgs from covering certain parts of the White House come during the same week he is hosting the President of China. It is, of course, comic in the extreme that Trump has gone from screaming “communist” at progrressive Dem candidates to extolling the great relationship he has with someone who, last time I looked, runs a repressive regime under the rubric of the Communist Party.

But my point is a different one. Trump is repressing the press to show off to Xi, to demonstrate that, despite this country’s legal system, he can be as tough a strongman as the Chinese President. The unprecedented assaults on the First Amendment are deliberately timed to (in his mind) demonstrate Trump’s cojones. If this is an accurate analysis, we should be grateful that President Xi doesn’t practice routine human sacrifice, lest Trump take that as a challenge.