This Week and Next: The Unraveling

By Josh Powell

Oh America. This past week delivered a crescendo of chaos so spectacular, so breathtakingly unhinged, that even the most cynical found themselves reaching for their Xanax and wondering if those D.A.R.E. program warnings about acid flashbacks were finally coming true.

The week’s pièce de résistance—a double feature that began with Trump’s press conference on acetaminophen and climaxed with his impromptu performance at the United Nations. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

The Supporting Cast of Catastrophe

First, there was Lee Zeldin (you can read my profile of him here), our toxic EPA Director, who managed to multitask between burying the Earth under a mountain of industrial waste and weathering the fallout from his 2022 gubernatorial campaign. Just this week, two Republican super PACs quietly settled an inquiry into illegal coordination with Zeldin’s failed gubernatorial bid, paying nearly a million dollars to make the problem disappear. Nothing says “I’m innocent” qui…