It's official: Trump is going to try to make the Fourth of July all about himself

Well, it's happening. The Washington, D.C., mayor and U.S. Park Police have confirmed that Donald Trump will be commandeering the 4th of July to give his own speech (rally?) at the Lincoln Memorial. The formerly nonpartisan and blessedly uncontroversial holiday celebration, featuring one of the most-watched fireworks displays in the nation, is going to get a big ol' dose of Trump's shouting head crammed into it. Won't that go well.

This has apparently been a genuine obsession for Trump. He wanted to have a gargantuan military parade of tanks and missile launchers and whatnot; once dissuaded from that, it was going to be a new Veterans Day military parade, and since that, too, has proved to be a tough sell, he's settled on borrowing Washington, D.C.'s, Fourth of July celebration for his own purposes. The fireworks display will be moved, because he wants it moved. There may or may not be additional "entertainers" added. The crowd control measures have to be completely redesigned to accommodate the moves, and law enforcement and the Secret Service will have to add as-of-yet-unknown restrictions and closures in order to allow Donald to give an open-air speech in front of one of the nation's most famous monuments.

And it all has to be ready by (double-checking here), yup, July 4, less than a month from now, because that date ain't negotiable.

The obvious questions remain. With Trump personally in charge of the details, will it be a very public wrecking of an event previously lauded for its organizational competence and widespread appeal? And is there even the slightest possibility Trump can refrain from turning his supposed speech about America into a speech about the greatness of Donald Trump and the vicious un-Americanness of a list of named enemies?

The answers are (1) maybe and (2) not bloody likely. If you plan on drinking that evening, you may want to start early.