Trust in America is eroding, at home and abroad

America has become the center of disbelief and conspiracy theories.

I never subscribed to conspiracies because the most rational part of my brain knows that multiple people are required to make a gag successful, and people talk too much, and maintaining a grand conspiracy requires tight lips. Neither of these things can truly exist in 2026. Anyone who is active on social media knows that NOTHING is a secret anymore. Breakups, makeups, glow-ups, everybody wants to share their part of the effort. Everyone wants to have a say in how it went down, even when they don’t know what went down at all.

This brings me to today’s rant.

WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON IN OUR NATION’S CAPITAL?

Saturday night was the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner, an event our current president has never graced with his presence until April 25. That was his first time attending as president - you read that right, his only previous attendance was as a private citizen, Trump in the lead up to his first run for president in 2015. That night, he was the butt of many jokes delivered by then-president (and nemesis in Trump’s mind) Barack Obama, who returned many of Trump’s “birther” jabs. Many say that night is when Donald J. Trump decided that America needed more chaos…I mean, it needed to be greater or whatever.

With Captain Chaos and his merry band of misaligned misfits in full evening wear, something crazy happened. A gunman ran past security, fired shots nowhere near the ballroom, and was captured. At first, they said he was dead, because this administration is spelled CHAOS and CONFUSION. Then we learned he was caught by the Secret Service and apprehended. Photos were released, and our octogenarian leader had foiled a third attempt on his life, or was it the fourth? It's been a long 10-year presidency. What a strong and virile elder statesman President Trump is, ducking hits left, right, and center.

Then the expected happened. Americans took to the internet to express disbelief that, in all the years of the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, there had never been an act like this. The night actually represents the contrary. The sitting president and other cabinet members join the press pool that scrutinizes their every move for an evening of meet-and-greets, laughs, dinner, and drinks. The internet being what it is, footage from every angle is available. The video was sped up, slowed down, and widely circulated with freeze frames, and a million takes of “what possibly happened”.

Save yourself the trouble because you will have to wait 40 years to learn what drove a teacher to spend hundreds of dollars to travel by train for a nearly 65-hour trip and ultimately never shoot a soul.

Then there is the all-too-familiar “if you’re reading this, you did a bad thing” message sent to loved ones. Very similar in style to the message sent by the man accused of murdering Charlie Kirk. Unlike Trump’s first assassin, a one-time supporter who struck at a campaign event, this shooter has an extensive online presence, complete with a teacher of the year honor.

Fast forward through what seemed like terrible acting from members of the inner circle, skip the part where the FBI director is partly cowering under a table while looking like he was counting to make sure he didn’t miss his cue. Stop at the press conference and do a split screen of dweebs in tuxes saying - welp now seems like a great time to approve that ballroom…eventhough the WHCD is NOT, I repeat IS NOT a sanctioned government event. It is an event where the president is an invited guest, and that invitation, the presidential bone spurs, happily avoided until this year, when utter chaos and a lone gunman “followed” him there.

I don’t know what happened in that Hilton ballroom in Washington, D.C. I do know that after experiencing an “active shooter” event, the president and his cabinet members decked out in bow ties and suit coats did not even pretend to understand the sheer fright and terror that most experience when they are trapped in a space with live rounds being fired and no clue if they’ll make it out alive. They didn’t even try to pretend that being targeted by a gunman AGAIN was anything other than another day at the office.

A very dangerous game is being played, America. If we aren’t careful, we will certainly fall victim to a dystopian plan to desensitize us and separate us from thinking critically.