"Trump is going to get his ballroom — even if courts conclude it’s illegal."

Said lawprof Leah Litman, quoted by Adam Liptak in "Trump’s 'Lightning Speed' Outpaces the Courts/In his breakneck construction of a grand ballroom and in many other initiatives, critics say, the president has tried to outrun judicial review" (NYT gift link).

When the ballroom case was argued before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in June, Judge Patricia A. Millett asked... If the government were to move very quickly to bulldoze the Statue of Liberty... was it true that “nothing can be done” by the courts? 

Yaakov Roth, a Justice Department lawyer, did not try to duck the question. “I think that’s right, yes,” he said.... 

When the case reached the Supreme Court last month, the challengers warned the justices that Mr. Trump had “decided to try to outrun judicial review.” In response, Solicitor General D. John Sauer did not exactly deny the charge. He crowed that a 250-person crew had been working 20 hours a day, seven days a week, and that the project, which he said included key security upgrades for the White House, had passed the point of no return....

It's in the structure of things that the Executive has speed as a tool. Remember when Justice Robert Jackson quoted Napoleon — "The tools belong to the man who can use them"?

"If people are willing to get a dumpster and do it themselves and clean it out.... It'll look perfect within 24 hours and that's what he wants to do."

"He doesn't want to wait around for 7 months till the city hires some demolition contract... $25,000 to do his lot.... You have emergency powers just like I do, and I'm exercising my emergency powers. You have to exercise them.... You have a very powerful emergency power and you can do everything within 24 hours. Yes. And if individuals want to clear out their property, they can."

Said President Trump to L.A. Mayor Karen Bass:

 

Bass, struggling to keep up with Trump's time pressure, ventured: "Well, yes, but you know that you will be able to go back soon.... we think within a week."

7 months wasn't good enough for Trump and neither was a week. He said: "That's a long time away — I'll be honest — to me..... And — the most important thing — a week is a long [time to people who want to go in and clean out their own house]."

Bass interrupted to say that she wanted people to be safe, and Trump cut her off and overpowered her: "They're safe. They're safe. You know what? They're not safe. They're not safe now. They're going to be much safer. A week is actually a long time.... I watched hundreds of people. standing in front of their lots and they're not allowed to go in. It's all burned. It's gone. It's done.... It's not going to burn any more. There's nothing to burn. There's almost nothing to burn. And they want to go in there...."

Bass embodied caution. She articulated the interest in safety, but perhaps she wants to save the work for the contractors who — Trump says — will charge $25,000 for each lot cleared. Trump pictures the homeowners rushing in grabbing armloads of debris and heaving it into dumpsters overnight. But don't you need contractors to deliver and pick up those dumpsters? And won't some of those homeowners — are they the homeowners — injure themselves jumping about in the wreckage? What is the big hurry? But Bass comes across as weak and afraid to take action, while Trump seems commanding and sanguine, ready to unleash the power of the individual citizens who are raring to get in there and transform the landscape overnight. You can do everything within 24 hours. 

"I was doing great, I was sort of like a hot guy. I was hot as a pistol. I think I’m hotter than I am now and I became president."

"I asked somebody, was I hotter before or hotter now. I don’t know… Who the hell knows? Who the hell cares? You have to always keep moving forward. And when it’s your time you’ve got to know it’s your time. And I said to myself in terms of politics, ‘You know what: we did so well in number one and we did even better in number two… we’ve got to do it again. I’m not doing it for myself, I’m doing it to make America great again...."

Said Donald Trump, quoted in "Trump brazenly asks Bronx crowd if he was 'hotter' before or after becoming president." 

That's in the Independent, which says "He is seemingly attempting to make inroads with ethnic minority voters, hoping it can bolster his support in traditionally Democratic strongholds and swing states."

Seemingly! The polls show that he has made inroads with ethnic minority voters, and he's keeping up the pressure, what with this rallying in the South Bronx. As he said, you have to perceive your hotness and move forward into greater and greater hotness. 

I watched most of the Bronx speech, and I thought he seemed especially happy to be there. New York is his town, and — telling stories about building in the city — he conveyed real love for the place. He wanted the people of his favorite city to know he cares and he can rebuild things for them — quickly — like he rebuilt the Wollman skating rink.

How threatened do Democrats feel? I'd like to know. How dare he come for their safe safe safe state of New York? He dares. He's hot. He senses his own hotness and goes for it. Who else would do that? No one.

ADDED: Are you having trouble understanding "I think I’m hotter than I am now"? Listening live, you probably wouldn't be confused. He just switched to speaking about the past in the present test. He means, at the time, back then, he thought I'm really hot. And the hotness, as he subjectively thought about it, was hotter than the hotness he has "now." And by "now," he means the entire political phase of his life, including the time, quite a few years ago, when he actually was President. It's a pretty long "now." But he had his building mogul phase, he's TV star phase, and his political phase. He was damned big — AKA "hot" — in all 3.

ALSO: Sorry for leaving out the usual hedging when I wrote: "He wanted the people of his favorite city to know he cares and he can rebuild...." Normally, I would write "He seems to have wanted the people of his favorite city to believe he cares and he can rebuild...." I don't know what's really in his head, but it just seemed irritatingly weaselly to make a thing out of that in the original post. But I did nevertheless feel I needed to pay tribute to truth in this addendum. Carry on!