The State of the Game Show

It turns out that the only thing Suzanne Collins got wrong when she wrote the Hunger Games trilogy was the idea that the game show would be a function of the government—not the way the government functioned. She imagined that the various games masters would serve at the pleasure of the autocrat, while President Snow would keep himself one step removed to focus on more important matters of state.

In the real dystopian nightmare that is Trump-era America, we’ve got things reversed. The president is the games master. It’s the functionaries, Stephen Miller and Russell Vought, who serve at a remove to focus on the more important matters of state, while the president dyes his hair and puts on a show for the cameras. It’s the president who grabs the microphone to revel in the spectacles of violence and death he has created.

The modern State of the Union address is always political theater—but it wasn’t set out to be. The Constitution positions the president and Congress as adversaries, with Congress clearly given the upper hand. Just look at the State of the Union clause in the Constitution. It’s nestled in Article II (the section that creates the executive branch): “[The President] shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” It reads like a CEO (the president) is being summoned to make a presentation to their board of directors (Congress).

You wouldn’t know this from watching our modern spectacle. Instead of treating the president like its employee, Congress debases itself, yearly, while begging for photo opps with the sitting president. Congress has turned a clause meant to remind the president that he is not a king into the most monarchical event on the political calendar.

The State of the Union is always theater, but this year, Trump turned this annual address into a game show. There were celebrity appearances, surprise reveals, and an extended sports break, all while Trump played master of ceremonies over his kingdom—Ilhan Omar did her best to make her pantsuit appear to be wreathed in flame.

Truth is always stranger than fiction, and our truths happen to also be more evil. The thing that Collins got right in her novels is that the game show is, of course, a distraction. It’s a way to turn authoritarian violence into a titillating event instead of an enraging tragedy.

But even President Snow wasn’t using the Hunger Games to cover up a pedophile ring.

The Bad and the Ugly

• During last year’s State of the Union (technically just an “address to the joint session of Congress”), Trump thanked John Roberts for allowing him to be president. This year, Trump castigated Roberts and the Supreme Court for their tariff decision, which he believes denied him his divine right to threaten the global economy. I have entirely more sympathy for Dr. Frankenstein than I do for Roberts.
• During the speech, Trump declared a “war on fraud.” The plan seems to be to appoint a new assistant attorney general who will answer directly to Vice President JD Vance but… that’s not how the Department of Justice is supposed to work. The government’s lawyers are supposed to answer to the attorney general, not the White House. Then again, Pam Bondi doesn’t understand how to do her job anyway, so this is probably a distinction without a difference.
• I’m not an expert on tariff laws, and I don’t intend to become one until I need to buy a new PlayStation, but the people who are experts are saying that Trump’s proposed 15 percent global tariffs also exceed his authority under the new law he is trying to use to ram them through without the approval of Congress.
• Kansas has banned driving while trans. That’s not hyperbole. A new state law says that if the gender on your driver’s license doesn’t match the gender on your birth certificate, your license is invalid and you are driving without a license. The amount of bigotry in this country is astounding, and I’m a 47-year-old Black man who is not easily astounded by American bigotry.
• You know, it’s one thing for RFK Jr. to make it easier for the idiots who listen to him not to vaccinate their kids. It’s another thing for him to make it harder for actually intelligent parents to get their kids vaccinated.

Inspired Takes

• The US Men’s National Hockey team won a gold medal, and then promptly turned themselves into political props for our fascist government. The Nation’s Dave Zirin explains their decision to be used to sportswash a fascist regime.
• The Nation’s Kali Holloway explains how MAGA’s reaction to the Epstein files disclosures reveals its “total moral collapse.” Not that anybody should be surprised. MAGA has always used a fake sense of moral outrage as a front for its very real sense of white nationalism.
• In the last two weeks, there have been a slew of high-profile retirements among Republican federal judges. Balls and Strikes covers these retirements and explains why they’ll lead to the first real test of Trump’s judicial confirmation machine—the one that was so effective in his first term. I’m guessing that Trump will still be able to get whomever he wants through the Republican-controlled Senate, and continue to inflict generational damage on the courts.

Worst Argument of the Week

Why was representative Al Green kicked out of the State of the Union? Green brought a handmade sign to the address that read “BLACK PEOPLE ARE NOT APES!,” a reference to the racist video of Barack and Michelle Obama that Trump shared earlier this year. But why did that mean he could be kicked out?

It’s a serious question. What law or code of conduct did Green violate? Are you not allowed to hold signs at the State of the Union? That would be news to me. Just last year, all the Democrats held (feckless, stupid) ping-pong placards during the speech. They weren’t kicked out. Why was Green?

Was he being disruptive? He didn’t say anything, he just held a sign. The only disruption I saw was when 57-year-old Republican Representative Troy Nehls tried to assault the 79-year-old Green and rip the sign out of his hands. Why was Green ejected and Nehls allowed to stay?

But even if he were being disruptive, that’s never been a reason for someone to be kicked out of the speech. For years, during the Biden administration, we had to endure Majorie Taylor Green and Lauren Bobert braying like donkeys through half the speech. This year, Representatives Omar and Rashida Tlaib shouted back at Trump while he lied. They weren’t removed. Why was Green?

Was the message on the sign somehow offensive? Can we not all agree that Black people are not, in fact, apes?

Near as I can tell, Al Green was kicked out of a joint session of Congress for no reason other than that he is an old Black man, and everybody knew nobody would stand up for his right to be there. The media wasn’t going to put up a fuss about a member of Congress being excluded from the speech against his will, and not even his fellow Democrats would do or say anything about it. Hakeem Jeffries could be counted on to sit there, mute, while a member of his caucus was deprived of his free speech rights, and everybody knew it.

Well, I’m putting up a fuss. Black people are not apes. And we can’t just be kicked out of places where we have a right to be for no reason.

What I Wrote

• The tariff decision was a mess. That fact has kind of been overlooked because Trump had a temper tantrum after he lost, but I walked people through what the conservatives—both the ones who voted for Trump and the ones who voted against him—were actually saying. Folks, these people are unhinged.
• People might be overlooking the most important Supreme Court decision that came down this week. The justices ruled, 5–4, that the post office can refuse to deliver your mail. That’s pretty significant if you are thinking of, say, mailing in your ballot this November. I explained why the anti-democracy wing of the court turned to its favorite “Black friend,” Clarence Thomas, to do this dirty work. 

In News Unrelated to the Current Chaos

Late last Friday, Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft’s gaming division (known more commonly as Xbox) suddenly retired, effective Monday. His second-in-command and heir apparent, Sarah Bond, resigned. Microsoft announced that the new Xbox CEO would be Asha Sharma. Previously, Sharma was head of Microsoft’s CoreAI division. 

This means that Microsoft pushed out its video game leaders and replaced them with its AI leader. Microsoft is a global behemoth of a company, but Xbox is one of its only consumer-facing divisions. The move strongly suggests that Microsoft intends to shove AI in the face of every gamer, whether they like it or not, and the rest of the industry might be forced to follow along.

Sharma (who has absolutely no experience in gaming and created her Xbox account only a month ago), is saying the right things. In her opening statement to staff, she said that she did not intend to use “soulless AI slop” to replace creative people. Of course, “soulless” is a load-bearing word and could mean anything. I doubt that the head of Microsoft’s CoreAI division thinks all AI is “soulless,” and I’ll bet my premium currency that we’re going to get a lot of “really thoughtful and soulful” AI (slop) from Xbox and Sharma.

Xbox lost the console wars. Both Sony’s PlayStation and Nintendo’s Switch have a far larger user base than Xbox. But that’s just the hardware. Xbox has bought up many game developers, including the giants Activision-Blizzard, which they bought for $68.7 billion a few years ago. They own Minecraft, which is the game most of your kids are playing. Their influence on not just the gaming industry but our children’s entire cultural ecosphere cannot be understated.

And now they’ve got their chief AI pusher in charge of all that content.

AI is not inevitable, but the billionaire class is sure trying to make it inescapable.

***

If you enjoyed this installment of Elie v. U.S., click here to receive the newsletter in your inbox each Friday.