President Trump is indeed “Making America Great Again.” The economy is roaring, border security is at long last a national priority, and the global trade balance is being reset in favor of American workers. Every bit as important, the incestuous cabal of deep state operatives, mainstream media mouthpieces, internet censors, and Beltway hacks conspiring against Trump (and the American people) has been exposed and embarrassed.
But recently, the cabal got its revenge, embarrassing Trump for a change.
Clearly, I am not talking about the high-profile congressional hearing in Washington, D.C., featuring former special counsel Robert Mueller. Advertised as the apex of leftist demagoguery against Trump, Mueller’s testimony wound up being an unmitigated disaster for the president’s enemies, effectively ending Democrats’ impeachment efforts.
No, I am referring to Trump’s appearance on Tuesday at a Washington, D.C., event for Turning Point USA, a group of young conservatives led by Chicago-based operative Charlie Kirk which claims to be “winning America’s culture war.”
Unfortunately, the president has consistently struggled to gain traction among young voters, which could wind up complicating his electoral prospects. Despite expanding their employment horizons and putting more money in their pockets, Trump continues to poll terribly among millennials.
Unfortunately, Kirk’s group made things worse recently when the president took time out of his busy schedule to address its “Teen Action Summit.” As he took the stage, appearing on a video board behind Trump was a disgusting, demeaning fake presidential seal: one deliberately manipulated to cause maximum embarrassment for the president. Designed by a #NeverTrump Republican, the fake seal replaced the American eagle with a two-headed imperial bird from the Russian coat of arms. Adorned with the phrase “45 is a puppet,” the two-headed bird grips a wad of cash (instead of the eagle’s olive branch) in one talon while holding golf clubs (instead of arrows) in the other.
Oblivious to the insulting image appearing behind him, Trump clapped and smiled on stage at the Turning Point USA event, posing for photographs and videos that are now plastered all over the internet.
Kirk’s group insisted the fake seal was a “last-minute oversight,” the result of a “hasty Google search” on the part of a since-fired staffer. But that explanation was immediately debunked by the creator of the offending image.
“That’s a load of crap,” the seal’s designer told the Washington Post. “You have to look for this. There’s no way this was an accident is all I’m saying.”
The designer went on to say he believes whoever placed the fake seal behind Trump “dug up the image … and used it intentionally.”
This was malicious sabotage (or galling incompetence) and Turning Point is probably lying about how it came about.
Sadly, this failure — and Turning Point USA’s broader ineffectiveness in “winning America’s culture war” — is what donors should expect when they entrust their resources to young political hacks who are clearly more interested in amassing personal wealth and building fiefdoms for themselves than they are in producing results.
The seal snafu and Turning Point USA’s refusal to come clean about what really happened is disappointing enough. But the real problem is that Kirk and others like him keep padding their pockets and building their Beltway empires as they lose additional ground in the battle for the hearts and minds of America’s young voters.
Carnel L. Harley is the Republican ward leader of Philadelphia’s 13th Ward.
