Alex's Asteroid Astrology

Donald J. Trump’s hijacking of America’s birthday celebration on July 4^th was quite a spectacle, if not the one he intended. Since the Bastille Day parade he was treated to by France’s President Macron two years ago, Trump has been aching to outdo his host in mock military maneuvers; thwarted in his desire last year for a Veterans Day Parade extravaganza, Trump belatedly settled for an Independence Day appearance on the National Mall, in front of the Lincoln Memorial, perhaps the president he least resembles.

To his credit, Trump did manage to pull off a largely nonpartisan address, something critics assumed would be beyond him. Granted, it was a dull speech (Trump never does well on the teleprompter with prepared remarks, he’s much better at riffing off the cuff while he whips up grievance in his audience), punctuated with Trump’s color commentary during the various military aircraft flyovers, but it didn’t ruffle political feathers or include partisan attacks. Like a toddler who straggles last across the finish line, Trump has earned his “Participant” medal.

The President and First Lady acknowledge the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial; how many brown faces do you see?

By the very nature of his existence, Trump’s presence is of course politically polarizing, and an inappropriate intrusion into the People’s Holiday (the last president to address the nation on Independence Day was Harry Truman in 1951, for the 175^th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence). And the focus on the military for his self-described “Show of a Lifetime” was equally misplaced, better reserved for Memorial Day or Veterans Day (though of course our military deserves our praise and support every day). Perhaps the ill-educated Trump has never heard the expression, “the pen is mightier than the sword”, but the Fourth of July is exactly that – a celebration of the power of the pen, commemorating a document, not a battle. The staged Sherman tanks (which Trump previously tweeted as being “brand new”, though the Sherman was decommissioned in 1957) were not required.

Trump makes his remarks from behind a rain-streaked barrier as the heavens opened; is God a Democrat?

And in case anyone had any doubts, we can now positively assert that God is a Democrat, or at any rate, a Never-Trumper. The heavens opened with showers upon the sea of white faces in the audience at virtually the exact moment the President began his address. The streams of rain on the protective barrier he spoke through resembled nothing so much as the prison bars depicted in drawings made last week by migrant children detained in the administration’s unhygienic holding pens on the Southwest Border.

The speech, slated to begin at 6:30 PM, was delayed until 6:38, bringing Trump’s Fairy Godmother, Jupiter, exactly onto the 16 Sagittarius Ascendant, from where it opposed asteroid Washingtonia at 20 Gemini, on the Descendant, admirably setting the stage for a politically sensitive moment in the nation’s capital. Jupiter/Washingtonia, however, formed a T-Square with asteroid America at 19 Virgo, putting the government, in the form of its Oval Office occupant, largely at odds with the nation. Centaur Chiron at 5 Aries exactly hugs the IC, showing the foundational reason for the spectacle to be the inherent, incurable woundedness of the Maverick-in-Chief, always jonesing for a fix of attention.

Drawings of their hellscape by detained migrant children are eerily reminiscent of the rivulets of rain coursing down the presidential podium

The Sun at 12 Cancer, about to return to its natal degree in the nation’s chart, establishes the venue and its principal player further, exactly conjoined asteroid Whitehouse (for the President) and accompanied by asteroid Lincoln, for the Lincoln Memorial setting, at 11 Cancer. Asteroid Narcissus at 14 Cancer completes the picture, showing the essence of the event (the Sun) as the President’s (Whitehouse) inveterate self-centeredness and narcissism (Narcissus). The Sun is also exactly semisquare asteroid Storm at 27 Leo, providing the dampening effect on the crowd, as well as First Lady Melania, who by the end of the speech looked like she had just stepped out of the bath (though her husband’s plasticine coiffure remained faultless, if visibly moistened).

Although the speech came off without serious political infractions, there was some considerable mangling of history, in that special way only Trump has. In addition to the typical mispronunciations (such as “versi-tality” for “versatility”), Trump appears to have asserted, in his all-important tribute to the Army itself, not only that the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War was “named after” its commander, George Washington, and that it ultimately defeated British General Cornwallis “of Yorktown” (not “at”), but also ascribing to it the brilliant move to commandeer all the airports extant in 1783: “it [presumably the “Washington Army”] manned the air, rammed the ramparts, took over the airports, it did everything it had to do.”

The Blue Angels buzzed the Lincoln Memorial during Trump’s speech, but remained too high aloft to do any real damage

Yes, every schoolchild is familiar with the tale of Paul Revere’s warning of his fellow patriots, and how the Redcoats’ means of locomotion was to be conveyed by lamps in a church steeple: “One if by land, two if by sea, three if by zeppelin.” One assumes Trump went off script at this point, and with his limited knowledge of history (or anything else), he supposed a great commander like Washington understood the strategic importance of controlling airports in the eighteenth century. Trump concluded his remarks on the Army with a stirring recollection of its role in the struggle to “illiberate and obliterate the ISIS caliphate.” (I’m not sure I spelled ”illiberate” correctly, as it’s not a word. This follows just a week after he mistakenly ascribed Vladimir Putin’s derisory comments on “Western liberalism” to the effect of Democrats in control of Californian cities.) To be fair, this verbal malfeasance occurred almost 40 minutes into the speech, possibly the longest scripted address Trump has ever given.

Be that as it may, his adjustment of history can be seen in the placement of two key asteroids. Herodotus, named for the ancient Greek scribe known as the father of history, appears at 16 Capricorn, in concert with limitations-producing and inadequacy-highlighting Saturn at 17 and asteroid Troemper itself, the President’s celestial referent, at 21 Cap, while asteroid Klio, named for the Muse of history, falls at 0 Leo, conjoined military-ruling Mars and speechifying Mercury at 1 and 4 Leo. These are squared by Uranus at 6 Taurus, possibly prompting Trump’s innovative reinterpretation of history, or at least his choice of bogus airports as his flub-du-jour.

A migrant child’s rendition of her detention environment, or Ivanka’s doodle of Melania at the speech? You decide…

Another embarrassing performance for POTUS, but at least he’s not hugging dictators or threatening Iran.