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WASHINGTON—One of the great things about my onetime hometown on the shining banks of the Milwaukee River is that the Harley Davidson Company makes its iconic American riding iron there. Every year, in fact, they celebrate HarleyFest, which is the greatest combination of modern marketing and enormous men this side of the Super Bowl. In fact, Harley is about the last vestige of muscle manufacturing in a city that once boasted Allis Chalmers, International Harvester, and Briggs and Stratton, as well as dozens of minor plants and factories.

Anyway, the president* was supposed to drop by the plant on Thursday to talk about the booming economy that he's brought down upon the nation since taking office two weeks ago. Except things didn't work out the way he planned. From Channel 6 in Milwaukee:

President Trump had been scheduled to tour the factory Thursday where he also planned to sign executive orders related to American manufacturing. Large protests have been in the works in recent days, particularly in light of President Trump's executive order issuing an immigration ban. It was the threat of protests, and not President Trump's planned signing of executive orders, that made Harley Davidson uncomfortable, the official said.

Now, nobody's going to Wisconsin.

A company that annually hosts a convention of huge people who look like they could eat entire motorcycles and come back later for the sidecars does not dare host the President of the United States for fear of protest. Jesus, it took Nixon almost five years to get this bunkered unto himself, and he was fighting an unpopular war while subverting the Constitution. So far, President* Trump is only doing one of those and he's already getting his bookings canceled as though he were the Doors two weeks after Jim Morrison whipped it out in Miami. This is not a tenable situation for anyone.

Like it or not, sir, you're the president of the whole country. You are not merely the president of the White House, or of Sean Hannity's green room, or of whatever Caucasians-Only Valhalla lives in the minds of Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller. Sooner or later, if you want to stay in the job you have, you're going to have to talk to the people who find your presence in the White House …well, deplorable.

What if you'd showed up at Dulles last weekend? What if you invited a detainee family—one with two adorable children—to the White House for a chat about why what they went through, while inconvenient, was necessary to keep them safe, too. I mean, it's not like these people don't understand what living under the threat of death is like. That's why they're here in the first place. They might even listen. But you'll never know because you're out of your element, and way over your head, and all of the lifejackets are made of bricks.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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