Melania's Peachy Tennis Moment

Impeachment! Impeachment! That’s all everyone seems to be writing or talking about these days. So any op-ed from me on the subject would probably sound too redundant or too(yawn) boring. Why bother to even bring it up?

Right now we need another focus on impeachment like The White House needs a new tennis pavilion…Oh, wait. Have I ever got a story for you, dear readers:
Whether we Americans like it or not, there really will be a tennis pavilion built on White House grounds.

Really?

Of course, I thought it was just another joke, too — at first. Just another parody. Or fake news with a story soooooo absurd that it couldn’t possibly be real. So silly, so Onion-esque. Just another hyperbolic jab at reality that was so goofy yet so fun, nothing more. You know, clever fodder for Enquiring Minds. But it WAS true!

So Kurds are being slaughtered in Syria, tariffs are eroding our economy and destroying family farms left and right, and Trump is still acting like a wacky king going into powermad overdrive?
And First Lady Melania in stiletto heels gets to be cover girl for crazy conspicuous consumption in glamorous photo op as she “breaks ground” for new tennis pavilion at The White House?

Yep. That’s about it.

I first heard about it a few nights ago during a monologue from comic/late night host Jimmy Kimmel. I couldn’t believe it. He had to be kidding…He wasn’t, though. I checked further online and found verification on Jezebel: A Supposedly Feminist Website in an article by Megan Reynolds. Go to https://theslot.jezebel.com and read her tongue-in-cheek psychological take on the FLOTUS she calls “the shy Vienna sausage that lives in the president’s ‘basement.’”

My take on this matter, however, has more to do with Trump’s time-honored tactic of distraction & diversion than with Melania’s p.r.

Ordinarily, building a new tennis pavilion at The White House would have raised more than a few eyebrows. Can you imagine the unbridled scorn Republicans would have unleashed on Democratic President Obama if he had even suggested such a building project? I can. Angry, mocking words like “unbelievable waste of time and money” and “out of touch with reality” would have been tossed around like, well, tennis balls.

Even if Obama had gotten private donations to build his tennis pavilion, GOPropaganda would have leveled scathing diatribes about his athletic obsession and physical condition. Not so with Trump. After all, The Donald does belong to the Grand Old Party.

Since he’s a Republican, Trump gets rewarded with cult-like silence(A.K.A., zero criticism) from the other GOP members. Ask any of his loyal followers about Trump’s sports folly and they’d immediately defend him with reminders that private donations — not taxpayer dollars — were making this project possible. To that, I can only say: SO WHAT?

I don’t care who paid for it or how much it cost, it’s still a really stupid idea. Here’s why.

* Trump isn’t the Superman he pretends to be.
Playing tennis is the last thing any overweight, junk-eating 73 year-old man needs. He should ease into leisurely badminton games, then work his way up to horseshoe tosses. Seriously. He needs to start an exercise program supervised by his doctor. He needs a workout that includes cross-training with stretching, yoga, light weights, treadmill and stationary bike time — not tennis. Engaging in a hard-driving, stop-and-go activity like tennis wouldn’t just damage ligaments or strain muscles, it might prove fatal.

* There are only 24 hrs. in a day.
Not everyone likes tennis or can play tennis or can play tennis well enough to justify this new pavilion at The White House. This basic truth applies not only to current residents Trump and Melania but also to future occupants on Pennsylvania Avenue. Who’s to say that future presidents and first families will be serious tennis buffs? Who’s to say that there would even be time in their jam-packed schedules to squeeze in a few tennis matches?

* How much usage is this pavilion going to realistically get, anyway?
White House history is filled with tales of occupants who feathered their nest with favorite things, only to fly away after 4 or 8 years without having enough time to enjoy them. Things like a swimming pool, a bowling alley, and spaces converted to rooms for visitors, journalists, and family have all come and gone — as did various first families.

Even if Trump doesn’t get impeached, there’s no guarantee that he’ll be around long enough to get any justifiable use of these tennis courts. He might not get removed from office, but he might not get re-elected, either. Anyway, buying more roses to plump up the rose garden would be a more feasibly productive way to invest those funds.

But that’s not the point of his new Presidential tennis venue. Trump is trying to let everyone know he’s staying put in Washington D.C. He’s making sure America knows that he’s not going down without a fight — and he IS going to be using his new pavilion because he’s going to run again in 2020 and win! His term is going to last 8—not 4—years. (Get used to it, stupid Democrats and disloyal Republicans.)

So why would Trump want to make this point now, during this upheaval in Syria and tariff negotiations and impeachment inquiry — oops! I tried not to write about it, but there it is: impeachment. There’s the real strategy behind this new pavilion. Months earlier he could have sidetracked the news cycles with talk of his Space Force, attempts to buy Greenland, and the hissy fits of his personal attorney Rudy G. Now he’s using trophy wife Melania to publicize the construction of some fancy tennis courts no one had ever wanted or thought about before. FLOTUS actually tweeted “…Thank you to all who will help in making this legacy piece possible for future first families to gather at and enjoy for years to come.”

Legacy piece? Get real and stop trying to distract us with this forced reality. This pavilion was just another diversion from our Liar-in-Chief. And yet, Trump actually believed he could still use his B.S. to take the focus away from the real news at hand — his impending i-m-p-e-a-c-h-m-e-n-t — with new tennis courts. Unfortunately for him, American journalists aren’t taking his bait this time. They know what he’s up to and they’re not falling for it. That’s the real legacy that all Americans, not just first families, will treasure for years to come: TELLING US THE TRUTH ABOUT THE REAL STORY. And it’s not a gift from the Trump Administration, it’s actual information from our nation’s free press.

Kudos to news outlets everywhere for ignoring Trump’s latest distraction and sticking with the real story and real facts behind his smoke and mirrors.