If English Is Our Official Language Trump Should Learn To Speak It

Also: Why I'm sitting out today's Economic Blackout.

Dick is president. Run, Jane, run!

If you’re going to make English the official language of the United States, as President Donald Trump is preparing to do, it seems to me you should be fluent in it. To choose a random example, here is your commander-in-chief at a photo-op Cabinet meeting on February 26:

And as you know, we’re in for, probably, $350 billion and Europe is in for $100 billion. And that’s a big difference. So, we’re in for, probably, three times as much. And yet, it’s very important to everybody, but Europe is very close. We have a big ocean separating us. So, it’s very important for Europe. And they, hopefully, will step up and do maybe more than they’re doing and maybe a lot more.

I had no idea what Trump was talking about until I googled “$350 billion,” “$100 billion,” “United States,” and “Trump.” He was talking about how much we’ve spent defending Ukraine. One reason it was so hard to understand was that Trump got his numbers wrong, and not just a little wrong. The United States has appropriated not $350 billion but $174 billion for Ukraine. Of that, $119 billion has been direct aid. Europe has provided $138 billion in direct aid, and $138 billion is greater than $119 billion. Maybe Trump should sign an executive order making mathematics America’s official method of calculation. (Don’t tell him it was invented by Muslims.)

This country is experiencing a very grave crisis with a very simple cause: A malignant narcissist displaying evidence of dementia somehow got elected president for a second time. Today’s Economic Blackout is not, I believe, the necessary and appropriate response, because it is not targeted at this crisis and because when you boycott everything you boycott nothing. My latest New Republic piece explains further. You can read it here.