One of the most frustrating things about the Trump administration is that it offers too much nuttiness to process.

Not long ago, the discovery that the president doesn’t know what the Declaration of Independence is would have consumed the country for months. Today, it barely registers because the Trump White House pumps out similar stories two or three times a week.

When you compare such stories to the trade war with China or President Trump’s claim that he doesn’t know whether he’s required to uphold the Constitution, it’s tempting to view Trump’s recent brainstorms on movie tariffs and reopening Alcatraz as mere distractions. That would be a mistake. They are evidence of something much darker than Steve Bannon’s call to “flood the zone with s---.”

First, the ideas themselves. Trump announced on TruthSocial that he has decided the federal government is going to reopen a “substantially enlarged” Alcatraz because it needs more prison space.

Contemplate, for a moment, how utterly bizarre this is. In an actual, functioning government, if you decide you need........

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