For nearly eight years, I have regularly ridden my bicycle past a house that has faithfully flown a Trump flag, right underneath Old Glory, without interruption in all that time.
The flag has been refreshed over the years — from the original MAGA slogan, to “Keep America Great,” to “Trump 2024”— but the political commitment, and the willingness to proclaim it, have never wavered.
I have frequently speculated about the owner of that house, with its large side yard and wooden privacy fence. In my mind, he’s a middle-aged man with a Webber grill, a riding mower, and grown children who don’t speak to him. He lives in a solid middle-class community, and he’s thinking about retiring someplace warm and gun-friendly. Obviously, this is stereotyping on my part, but let’s stay with it a minute.
Because last week, on Day 94 of the second Trump presidency, I rode past that same house, and the only flag on that pole, waving in the wind, was Old Glory.
I suppose the Trump flag could be at the dry cleaners, in preparation for some hundred-days celebration, so I’ll have to check back. But I can think of at least a dozen other possible explanations for its absence.
Like maybe this guy’s a veteran, or the relative of one, and somehow got wind of the fact that veterans are being fired from federal jobs, and that their benefits are under assault.
Or maybe he does construction on a federal project that just had its funding pulled.
