THE SET-UP: Historians are convinced Marie Antionette did not say “Let them eat cake” when confronted with the hunger of the breadless masses in revolutionary France:
“Marie Antoinette never uttered these words or anything else along these lines,” said Denise Maior-Barron, an adjunct professor at Claremont Graduate University in California, whose research examines contemporary portrayals of Marie Antoinette’s character.
In fact, Maior-Barron told Live Science, those famous words were put in her mouth long after she’d lost her head to the guillotine in 1793:
“It did not come to be misattributed to Marie Antoinette during the 18th century, but during the Third French Republic starting in 1870, when a careful program of reconstructing the historical past took place.”
That said, the effort to reconstruct the past was largely successful insofar as the misattribution remains a widely-recognized historical cliché 150 years later.
That’s because some things don’t have to be true to reveal an enduring truth, and the truth is that elite contempt for the plight of the poor is as old as civilization. So, too, is the vast gulf between the opulent lives enjoyed by wealthy rulers and the hardscrabble subsistence of the angry peasants who toil to pay them rents and taxes.
Today, we call it “inequality” and the peasants are not serfs tied to the land, but they are often manacled to crippling debt they must service with stagnant or declining wages.
And they are still hungry.
One difference today is the effort to actively deny them cake … and candy, soda or anything else the poor have the audacity to eat or drink because it tastes good. Spurred by the Trump regime’s crusade to push millions of Americans off the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), states are using regime-issued waivers to forbid the poor from using food stamps to buy frivolous comestibles.
In Iowa, the state’s Department of Revenue used a particularly expansive waiver to restrict “nearly all taxable food items” with, according to a new story on MassLive.com, “an exception for ‘food-producing plants and seeds’.”
The waiver was rescinded after a court ruled it unlawful. But that hasn’t stopped other states from forging ahead and thereby creating a confusing patchwork of rules and lawsuits:
Of the 23 states approved for waivers, only about a third are actively enforcing them. Five have been blocked by a federal court, such as Iowa, and the rest have yet to reach their start dates.
Ostensibly, this is for their own good. To wit, a new academic working paper reviewed by the Washington Post concludes...
…that banning all sugary drinks from SNAP nationwide would result in savings of about $1.1 billion per year, mostly from an estimated reduction in health care costs stemming from recipients’ weight loss and reduction in Type 2 diabetes.
Fair enough … although it is interesting to see the rationale framed in terms of “saving money” instead of saving lives. There’s no doubt that some of this reflects genuine concern, but the reality is that it also reflects a long-standing desire to not “reward” the poor for being … poor. If they cannot afford nutrition, they certainly shouldn’t use assistance to buy something other than purely nutritious food. Sweet-tooths are reserved for those who can afford ‘em.
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt (R) let the truth slip out during a recent forum hosted by Stateline on the implementation of work requirements for SNAP recipients:
“Maybe it’s going back to the day where there was a little stigma attached and you had to actually go to a food bank and pick up commodity cheese and commodity groceries, and it had a little stigma so you were a little bit embarrassed,” he told Stateline. “Maybe we should go back to a little bit of that instead of just making it so easy…”
Thus far, adding layers of difficulty has pushed five million Americans off food stamps. Millions more will join them when the One Big Beautiful Bill’s restrictions become mandatory in the new year. The projected savings from that and similar restrictions on Medicaid was flipped into tax cuts for wealthy elites at a time when millions of Americans are either one missed paycheck away from needing assistance or they need assistance because the paychecks they get from Walmart and Amazon are not enough.
The push to make the poor work also comes during an impoverishing inflation of food and an enriching inflation of assets. But asset inflation doesn’t get any attention, perhaps because the people with the assets can afford the food. They can afford housing, too. And a sweet-tooth, of course. They can also afford to give large sums of money to one of the many bribery vehicles Trump and his family have created along the way. And of those, none is more emblematic of the enduring truth of out-of-touch rulers and their contempt for the unwashed masses than his ballroom.
Like many of his ventures, Trump opened the door to donations and claims it will be paid for by wealthy people eager to curry favor for their business or industry. And, according to Public Citizen, it’s working like a charm:
Over half of corporate ballroom donors – 14 out of 27 – have received new or increased government contracts over the last 6 months totaling over $50 billion.
Altogether, over two-thirds of corporate ballroom donors – 19 out of 27 – received government contracts over the last 5 ½ years totaling $338 billion.
Most of the corporate donors – 16 out of 27 – are facing federal enforcement actions and/or have had federal enforcement actions suspended by the Trump administration. These include major antitrust actions or merger reviews involving Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, NextEra Energy, Nvidia, T-Mobile, and Union Pacific; labor rights cases involving Amazon, Apple, Caterpillar, Google, Lockheed and Meta; and SEC matters involving Coinbase and Ripple.
Bribery and corruption. Unabashed and in spite of the fact that people don’t like it. They didn’t like seeing video of demolished East Wing, particularly while they are waiting for him to do something about an affordability crisis that’s pushed people onto food stamps and Medicaid.
Instead, they are getting his gawdy, gold-applique transformation of the Oval Office, a triumphal arch, a botched resurfacing of the reflecting pool, a renovated golf course, a remodeled bowling alley and a new White House helipad.
It’s not quite Versailles, but Trump is working on it.
Donald Trump’s Capital Makeover
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/09/14/donald-trumps-capital-makeover
Trump’s White House makeover keeps rolling — now the bowling alley gets $250K upgrade
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2026/09/01/trumps-white-house-makeover-keeps-rolling-now-the-bowling-alley-gets-250k-upgrade-1657164/
Renovations for White House bowling alley add to Team Trump’s growing list
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/white-house-bowling-alley-trump-renovations-agenda
Another White House renovation? A look at Trump’s new helipad
https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/cdx02dw785vo
Controversial renovations may begin Tuesday at DC’s East Potomac golf course
https://wtop.com/dc/2026/09/controversial-renovations-to-begin-tuesday-at-dcs-east-potomac-golf-course/
‘I am not the Lorax’: Judge unloads on Trump golf plan in bizarre hearing
https://www.rawstory.com/i-am-not-the-lorax-judicial-hearing-on-trump-s-golf-course-renovation-takes-odd-turn/
Donald Trump’s renovations spark uproar as he plans to fence off Lafayette Park
https://www.themirror.com/news/politics/donald-trumps-renovations-spark-uproar-2009107
Mile-long stretch of National Mall closed until 2027 for turf renovation
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2026/09/02/mile-long-stretch-national-mall-closed-until-2027-turf-renovation/
Trump Says Reflecting Pool Almost Fixed
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/donald-trump-reflecting-pool-repairs/2026/08/31/id/1267899/
Trump demands a makeover for the Kennedy Center, but his latest legal threat puts the historic landmark on the chopping block
https://www.themarysue.com/trump-demands-a-makeover-for-the-kennedy-center-but-his-latest-legal-threat-puts-the-historic-landmark-on-the-chopping-block/
Bitter Trump razes 40 weeping willow trees outside Kennedy Center commemorating assassinated president
https://www.irishstar.com/news/politics/bitter-trump-razes-40-weeping-37615956
US says it will break ground soon on Trump arch
https://gulfnews.com/world/americas/us-says-it-will-break-ground-soon-on-trump-arch-1.500662707
Donald Trump Openly Admits ‘Nobody’ Will Memorialize Him After His Presidency -- So He’s Doing It Himself
https://perezhilton.com/donald-trump-ballroom-jon-ossoff-memorial-commment/