President Trump delivered yet another talk-radio monologue-turned-executive order this weekend. In the process, he plunged the nation's biggest airports into chaos and inflicted a grievous wound on the fundamental moral character of the nation. To their credit, Democratic leaders in the areas most affected—the major transfer hubs that are not incidentally also home to large immigrant populations and formidable economic engines that power the entire country—sprung into action.

Among those Democratic leaders was Chuck Schumer, senior senator from New York and the Senate's minority leader. Speaking at a press conference, Schumer appeared to fight back tears as he pledged to fight the new policy tooth-and-nail:

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Sen. Schumer, fighting back tears: “This executive order was mean-spirited and un-American… It must be reversed” https://t.co/dxZ3XtJV7H pic.twitter.com/6hUlVkRVoG — CNN (@CNN) January 30, 2017

Naturally, this elicited a calm, reasoned, and mature response from the leader of the free world:

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Only 109 people out of 325,000 were detained and held for questioning. Big problems at airports were caused by Delta computer outage,..... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 30, 2017

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protesters and the tears of Senator Schumer. Secretary Kelly said that all is going well with very few problems. MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 30, 2017

Later, Trump doubled down during an Oval Office meeting with small business owners, according to WCBS:

"I noticed Chuck Schumer yesterday with fake tears. I'm going to ask him who is his acting coach, because I know him very well. I don't see him as a crier. If he is, he's a different man. There's about a five percent chance that it was real, but I think they were fake tears," Trump said Monday.

The response from the #MAGA crowd on Twitter was characterized by the typically bizarre language of online Trumpism: Hateful triumphalism punctuated by increasingly nonsensical terms like "snowflake" and "participation trophy." It was, as ever, an indication that Trump's conservatism has morphed into a campaign for retribution against the groups—immigrants, LGBT people, liberal college students, environmentalists—whom its adherents believe have unacceptably changed the nation. There is no longer any kind of coherent ideology behind conservatism: It is, as Jeb Lund pointed out in Esquire, a means to punish the enemy within.

The ridicule of a public servant expressing grief and compassion for the plight of his constituents—and, God forbid, people who want to come to this country legally and become his constituents—says it all. There is perhaps no better gauge of the moral decay of this nation than this apparently widespread notion that having compassion for other human beings is a form of weakness. For a shameful weekend in the history of the United States of America, this was the perfect exclamation point.

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

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