Milbank: Trump is ramming greatness down all of our throats

Now that he has disposed of “E pluribus unum,” perhaps we can expect him to update the Marines motto from “semper fidelis” to “semper magnus” (always great). My friend Vanessa, a Latin instructor, tells me a simple change to the Justice Department motto — “Qui Pro Domina Justitia Sequitur,” or “he who prosecutes for justice” — would make it “Qui Pro Domino Sequitur,” or “he who prosecutes for the master.”

The flag would be aesthetically more appealing and less cluttered if it only had stars for the 30 states that voted for Trump. Aide Stephen Miller could remove that Emma Lazarus poem he so dislikes that now adorns the Statue of Liberty. Instead, he can add a plaque bearing the words: “Give me only your great.”

Some are born great and some achieve greatness, but all of us are having greatness rammed down our throats now.

‘Winning’ on Christmas

Even on Christmas Eve, Trump was attacking the FBI’s deputy director, boasting that he protected the phrase “Merry Christmas” from a supposed “assault,” retweeting a photo of himself with the word “WINNING” superimposed, and tweeting this Christmas message: “The Fake News refuses to talk about how Big and how Strong our BASE is … nobody is going to beat us. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

In a Christmas video, Trump briefly captured the meaning of the day when he spoke of renewing “the bonds of love and goodwill between our citizens.” But even in this message, he managed to find division. He highlighted the belief that the Old Testament prophet Isaiah prophesied that Jesus would be the Messiah. Jews dispute that interpretation.

The holiday wasn’t yet over when Trump tweeted that “tomorrow it’s back to work in order to Make America Great Again (which is happening faster than anyone anticipated)!” The next morning, he resumed attacks on Obamacare and a “Crooked Hillary pile of garbage.”

Contrast that with another head of state’s Christmas message. Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II spoke of the resilience of London and Manchester after terrorist attacks, mentioned the victims of hurricanes, hailed charities and volunteers, and delivered a unifying Christmas theme about the baby Jesus, “whose only sanctuary was a stable in Bethlehem. He knew rejection, hardship and persecution, and yet it is Jesus Christ’s generous love and example which has inspired me through good times and bad.”

I write this on Boxing Day, a holiday for many of the Commonwealth nations of the former British empire, with a twinge of envy. I don’t wish that the queen would take us back. But I regret that our head of state, with his jingoistic talk of greatness, squanders American goodness.