Let me count the ways.

Donald Trump excels at broadsides against bright places and people that burnish our world.

But now, it’s getting personal.

Trump is stealing what I hold dear. I’m not even speaking of press freedom or his suing CBS News, where I loved my first job.

I mean the Library of Congress and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Trump fired the librarian of Congress, Dr. Carla Hayden, and the Kennedy Center president, Deborah Rutter.

Call them Washington’s greatest cultural assets. Each woman lost her high post in a short email overnight.

“Carla … thank you for your service.”

Shabby.

I’ve known Dr. Hayden for years, from when I covered the library beat at the Baltimore Sun. She directed the city’s Enoch Pratt Free Library. And I’d never dare call her Carla.

Bal

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