Cool Hit Piece on Donald Trump - RE: 100 ft flag poles

Trump's renewed fascination with large flagpoles is harbinger of bad news for us | Opinion


Heads up, America:

We here in Palm Beach County need to advise you about a recent development involving Donald Trump’s alarming fascination with large poles.

As people living in the shadow of Mar-a-Lago, we have a little experience with Trump when it comes to his fixation with flagpole height, a condition that predates his presidency by a whole decade.

Paging Dr. Freud. Paging Dr. Freud.

This is why we are sounding the alarm throughout America over Trump’s recent announcement that he will be putting 100-foot flagpoles on both the north and south lawns of the White House.

Oh, no. Here we go again.

“Two flags. Top of the line. And they've needed flagpoles for 200 years," he said. "Paid for by Trump.”

Don’t hold your breath about the last part.

The alarming part isn’t that while President Trump is single-handedly leading America toward a tariff-fueled recession, he’s wasting money on garish displays of faux patriotism.

It’s that when he starts talking about flagpoles, it tends to be about something else.

In 2006, Trump had an 80-foot flagpole placed in the front yard of his Mar-a-Lago club without seeking a variance and permit approval from the Town of Palm Beach.

The town code restricted flagpole heights to 42 feet — so Trump’s pole was nearly double the allowed height.

Nevertheless, he continued to ignore the $250-per-day fines issued over his flagpole, fines that reached about $120,000.

Instead, he sued the town for the arbitrary, Austin-Powers-like amount of $25 million, saying town leaders were unpatriotic Americans abridging his First Amendment rights.

“The town council of Palm Beach should be ashamed of itself,” Trump told a national TV audience. “They’re fining me for putting up the American flag. This is probably a first in United States history.”

Now that Trump is president, nobody’s going to stop him from bringing his tacky, car dealership aesthetic to the White House lawn.

If the White House lawn starts looking like it ought to have a row of still-stickered new cars on it, sales signs for zero-percent financing, and a couple of windsock figures waving in the wind, well, that’s the way it will be with our pre-owned president.

But if this is like 2006, this new exercise in lawn ornamentation isn’t really about U.S. flags and flagpoles. It became clear after a while, that the Mar-a-Lago pole was just a way for Trump to negotiate other business he had with the town.

Dropping his $25 million lawsuit over the flagpole was offered in exchange of the town softening some of its rules over the membership at Trump’s club during closed-door negotiations.

So, don’t fall for Trump’s latest patriotism ruse. The giant flags and their poles will be serving as cover for something else.

Maybe to distract attention away from the future use of the military against U.S. citizens, a Russia-serving foreign policy, or tax cuts that only help the ultra-rich.

Don’t look at your suddenly tanking 401(k) and get angry. Don’t look at his brazen efforts to ignore court rulings, destroy once-functional government agencies, and silence legislators, judges, lawyers and media outlets through fear.

Just look at those giant flags on the White House lawn and get a new sense of pride.

I will note, while I still have the chance, that if you look at giant flagpoles throughout the world, there is an inverse relationship between the height of the big flagpoles in the country, and the appeal of living there.

Some of the worst countries on earth to live have the highest flagpoles.

Russia has a 574-foot flagpole. North Korea has a 525-foot pole. Iran has a 490-foot-pole.

The 10 countries with the tallest flagpoles that fly their national flags are, in order of height: Egypt, Azerbaijan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, North Korea, Iran, Turkmenistan, Jordan and India.

Ostentatious flag waving by the government from big poles isn’t an indicator of being a good place to live. It’s an indicator of countries with people who want to live elsewhere.

So, you’ve been warned. King Don Uno is having another one of his big flagpole periods.

Something unsavory is on the horizon.

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