Ex-Trump DHS official explains how he deluded MAGA 'into clapping for their own decline'

This Sunday, June 14, U.S. President Donald Trump will celebrate his 80th birthday by turning the White House's South Lawn into a cage-fighting arena that is being dubbed "The Claw." Critics of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event are warning that it will cost taxpayers a fortune, and former U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official Miles Taylor views the event as a tragic symbol of the United States' "decline."

Writing for the UK-based i Paper, Taylor — who served as DHS chief of staff during Trump's first presidency — laments, "You've been told the cage fight is an example of American excess. I think it's a gaudy symbol of something much worse: the potential end. The decay of America is symbolized by everything that had to be torn down to make room for a fight cage and a ballroom, from the South Lawn and the East Wing of the White House to the people and the principles that once stood between one man's impulses and the abuse of his power."

Taylor continues, "When the lights of The Claw rise over the White House grounds on Sunday and hulking fighters walk out from the Oval Office to applause, I hope you'll understand what you are really watching. A president has deluded his people into clapping for their own decline — and for his delight."

Back in September 2018, the conservative Taylor was still serving as DHS chief of staff when he anonymously wrote a New York Times op-ed headlined, "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration." Taylor's op-ed detailed efforts within the federal government to dissuade Trump from following through on his worst ideas.

During Trump's first presidency, Taylor recalls in the i Paper, there were a lot more people who were willing to tell him "no" — whereas now, he is surrounded by obedient loyalists. Those loyalists, Taylor laments, were happy to encourage Sunday's UFC event.

"If you wanted a single image to tell you where America now finds itself," the former DHS official warns, "you could not invent a more precise one. The annual extravaganza that has become the president's birthday does all the talking. We didn't previously let our presidents glorify themselves like this, as if their birth were a national holiday. Then last year, Trump arranged a first-of-its-kind military parade for himself. This year, he's building a gladiator's arena at the People's House, partly to celebrate his big day and partly for the entertainment of the masses — all of it amid unprecedented allegations of corruption and ceaseless controversies emanating from Trump's second term."

Taylor recalls that during the first Trump administration, "the people who told him 'no' held the line — America wasn't going to throw him a $92m birthday party parade to feed Trump's ego."

"Those folks are gone," Taylor warns. "I point that out a lot for a reason…. The men and women who once said 'no' have been fired, frightened off or converted into courtiers. Trump's gluttonous appetite runs free — a fitting symbol for what's happening to the American republic. Last year, he finally got his parade, a $45m affair on his 79th birthday that will be best remembered for a squeaky tank trundling past half-empty bleachers, and which, by several accounts, left him disappointed. This year, he gets gladiators."