[Before I return to my own blog after circumstances beyond my control left me unable to post for most of yesterday, I want to thank the EA commentariate for coming through with a stellar performance on yesterday’s emergency Open Forum. I expected nothing less, but the range of posts and topics was dazzling.]

I missed the Mall statute controversy until this morning. Here is the statue, which was only on display for a day before the National Park Service took it down:

Nice.

A permit for the thing was approved on September 16, and originally authorized the disparaging statue to remain on display at the National Mall until 8 p.m. ET this coming Sunday. A plaque beneath the bronze figures of the late convicted pedophile and sex trafficker and the President of the United States read: “In honor of friendship month, we celebrate the long-lasting bond between President Donald J. Trump and his ‘closest friend’ Jeffrey Epstein,” followed by a silhouette of two hands making a heart shape. The stated purpose of the artwork was “to demonstrate freedom of speech and artistic expression using political imagery.” That was deceit. The purpose of the statue was to promote the desperate Axis talking point that President Trump was involved in Epstein’s criminal activities, of which there is no evidence whatsoever and has never been any evidence.

Again, nice.

The permit was submitted by Carol Flaisher, a “location manager, whatever that is, who filed the permit application with the NPS on behalf of a group of asshole Trump Deranged artists who don’t have the guts to make their stupid protest openly, but choose to hide behind anonymity.

Ethics points:

• Those behind the statue abused the First Amendment, marred the National Mall in doing so, and are beneath contempt, and my contempt goes pretty low.
• That said, the National Park Service pretty clearly skipped over due process to tear the monstrosity down a day after it went up. “The statue was removed because it was not compliant with the permit issued,” Interior Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Peace said in an email. “She did not respond to follow-up questions about how or why the statue was not in compliance or if the department had provided the required 24-hour written notice before revoking the permit” the Washington Post reports.
• Of course it didn’t follow procedure: Trump or one of his loyal minions wanted the statue, a visual insult and for anyone else, possibly defamatory, removed immediately. Later, a National Park Service official explained that the artwork was “out of compliance” because it was several feet larger than stated in the permit. Even assuming it was, does anyone doubt that a statue honoring the President (and the National Mall should not include any sanctioned displays that denigrate Presidents of the U.S. government) would have been left undisturbed? As Ann Althouse writes, “If [the excessive height is] the answer, why didn’t Interior Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Peace put that in her original email response to The Washington Post? Why did she not respond to the follow-up questions if there is such an easy answer?” These are rhetorical questions. A group sat around a table after the orders came down to remove the statue and brainstormed possible excuses and legal justifications they could use to cover up censoring partisan political satire.  
• So, as Harry Reid would say, “It worked!” The stunt exploited a lax system that relied on good faith from applicants to make a purely partisan attack on the President of the United States. The organizers knew that once the statue went up, the Trump Administration would be in ethics zugzwang: allowing an ugly, unfair attack on the President to remain on the National Mall, an eyesore for tourists and an insult to the institution of the Presidency in a place reserved for honoring the nation’s heroes and history, or breaching the freedom of speech by removing it, thus allowing the Axis to scream,”Autocrat! Nazi!”
• Once having allowed the statue (whoever approved it should be bronzed and placed on a plinth in the Mall reading “Idiot”), the Park Service had no choice but to suck it up, accept the bitter fruits of its incompetence, and follow procedure.
• Thus the whole episode exposed what we already know to be true: this administration, like the last one, only reveres freedom of speech when it is its opponents doing the censoring.
• Althouse calls the statue “stupid.” No, it was brilliant: the Trump Deranged won this round. The anonymous artists bet that Trump et al. would not have the sense, principle, or self control to follow due process and let the statue stay up, perfectly illustrating how desperate and unscrupulous the Mad Left has become.