It might not be the most widely celebrated American holiday, but Flag Day exists. On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress approved the design of a national flag, and as such, every June 14, there’s a largely ignored commemoration marking the occasion.
It’s also, coincidentally, Donald Trump’s birthday. Evidently, as HuffPost noted, this gave one of the president’s more sycophantic congressional allies an idea.
Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) wants President Donald Trump’s birthday to be a federal holiday. On Friday, the New York congresswoman introduced in a news release what she called “Trump’s Birthday and Flag Day Holiday Establishment Act,” which would “permanently codify” June 14 as a federal holiday called “Trump’s Birthday and Flag Day,” according to the release.
In case there are any doubts, this isn’t intended as satire. The New York Republican really did introduce an actual bill, H.R. 1395, which does not yet have any cosponsors, though it seems safe to assume other far-right GOP lawmakers will soon follow suit.
By way of an explanation, Tenney issued a press statement saying that her proposal has merit because, as she put it, “No modern president has been more pivotal for our country than Donald J. Trump. As both our 45th and 47th President, he is the most consequential President in modern American history.” The GOP congresswoman, in apparent seriousness, added that recognizing Trump’s birthday as a federal holiday would “recognize him as the founder of America’s Golden Age.”
To be sure, it’s tempting to ignore this silly legislative effort, which will almost certainly go ignored, but there’s a larger pattern that’s worth appreciating.
After all, Tenney’s bill comes on the heels of a bill intended to carve Trump’s face into Mount Rushmore, which came on the heels of another measure to allow Trump to seek a third term.
There are also pending bills to rename Dulles Airport after Trump — an effort, incidentally, that Tenney has also endorsed — as well as legislation to “expunge” Trump’s first two impeachments.
In the last Congress, a Republican pushed a bill to put Trump’s face on $500 bills, and while the effort hasn’t yet been reintroduced in the current Congress, it’s probably only a matter of time.
As The New York Times recently summarized, “A competition of sorts has broken out for whom the Republican base will see as the most pro-Trump member.” From the article: The rush of flattering legislation, some of which even the lawmakers concede is unlikely to pass, stands apart from merely carrying out Mr. Trump’s agenda. … “It shows the power that Donald Trump has within the Republican Party these days, and that Republican members want to stay on his good side,” said Sean M. Theriault, government professor at the University of Texas at Austin. “A lot of these people are in really safe districts, but they’re also thinking about what their next step is. And so if they have designs on being in the Senate or running for governor or even a position in the administration, then there’s no better way to get on his good side than to do these over-the-top moves toward him.”
This was published before a New York congresswoman pushed her proposal to make Trump’s birthday a federal holiday. I’m reminded anew of the response to the Ogles bill from Filipe Campante, a professor at Johns Hopkins University: “The reason why this is bad is the very fact that it’s transparently ridiculous: It shows how this is becoming a Kim Jong-Un-style cult of personality, where the sycophants try to outdo one another in their groveling to get the attention of Dear Leader.” That competition, alas, appears likely to get more intense. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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