Sometimes it is really difficult to understand what Donald Trump is thinking. I often find myself wondering why he has such a tendency to dig himself into a hole. I don’t fault him for not being a born-and-bred politician, but at some point it’s hard not to wonder if he’s deliberately trying to sabotage himself to prove that his supporters don’t care. A lot of times they don’t, and it’s disturbingly similar to the way leftists were physically incapable of conceding when Barack Obama did something bad—which was often.
But so much of Trump's political branding was built upon the foundation of him being a D.C. outsider who was going to "drain the swamp." And yet, for some reason, on Saturday he really undermined that image when he insisted that the FBI shouldn't relocate and that it should stay in Washington, D.C.
"The FBI Headquarters should not be moved to a far away location, but should stay right where it is, in a new and spectacular building, in the best location in our now crime ridden and filthy dirty, graffiti scarred, Capital," he wrote in a post on Truth Social. "They should be involved in bringing back D.C., not running away from it, especially the violent crime. An important part of my platform for President is to bring back, restore, and rebuild Washington, D.C., into the 'crown jewel' of our Nation. We will make it crime free and GREAT AGAIN. The FBI should not be fleeing for safer, yet much less convenient, environs. It should make where they are now the safest place on earth! DON’T MOVE THE FBI!"
Last month, the GSA announced that Greenbelt, Maryland, would be the new location for the FBI's headquarters. As someone who was trained in architecture and spent roughly fifteen years in the business, you don't have to convince me that the current J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building in Washington, D.C., is an eyesore in what should be a city of beauty. It's hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that brutalist architecture was ever popular. That said, I can't, for the life of me, figure out why Trump would push for the FBI to remain in Washington, D.C.
The post became a perfect opportunity for Ron DeSantis to point out that Donald Trump's "drain the swamp" mantra was all talk. During a town hall event in Laconia, New Hampshire, he did just that.
"We need to be taking power out of D.C.," he said. "Donald Trump actually just put out a social media post where he's saying that he wants to build a massive, expensive brand new building for the FBI inside Washington, D.C. No! That's part of the problem with the FBI, they become overrun with D.C. politics. You need to take it out of D.C., take power out of there—that's how you drain the swamp. Not by deepening the swamp by building multibillion-dollar headquarters inside Washington, D.C."
DeSantis used Trump's words against him, contrasting Trump's post with his own belief that there's too much power in D.C. already.
"Five of the eight wealthiest counties in our country are suburbs of Washington, D.C.," he pointed out. "Now, how did that happen? Are they producing such great things? [...] No, it's all because of the connection to the government, and the largess that is done, and how this is all self-serving for the nation's ruling class. So I'm taking power out of D.C., you're gonna have a reduction in the size of government, but also in the scope of government."
You can't tell me that wasn't a great answer. How and when did Trump become the guy who wants to keep the FBI that spied on him and tried to undermine his presidency in Washington, D.C.?
