I know that it is very naughty of me, but I could just barely contain my glee when President Trump busted up the G-7 meeting on Friday.  Suggesting that they ought to invite bad boy Vladimir Putin along!  "Unprecedented!"  Tweeting from Air Force One that Trudeau fils is "weak!"  Hey, what about Canada charging "our farmers" 270% tariffs on dairy products?

It makes me think of Margaret Thatcher: "They're a weak lot, some of them in Europe, you know.  Weak.  Feeble."

Who knew, who knew, that this is what we were getting when Donald Trump rode down that escalator at Trump Tower three years ago?

By the way, who knew that you could tweet from Air Force One?  I thought the defense industry was barely able to keep the Chinese from ripping off our defense secrets.

Notice that it wasn't just President Trump who had his arms folded when Mutti Merkel was leaning over the table merkling at him?  Yes, "merkling" is a word: I got it from Schnitzel Republic.

All I can say is that I understand now what President Truman was talking about when he complained about the striped-pants boys at the State Department back in the 1940s.  It must be absolutely maddening to have to deal with the credentialed idiots in politics and government and the media.  Back in the day, I suppose, these idiots were WASP scions from Harvard and Yale.  Now they are intermarried liberal legacy grads from Harvard and Yale.  And they are just as clueless.

Like the guy that just got nabbed for lying about leaking.  Here is what I want to know.  Was this guy, James A. Wolfe, "former security director of the Senate Intelligence Committee," leaking directly on behalf of Democrats on the committee, or leaking in order to chat up babes, or just freelancing, because of the unprecedented insult of Trump to all right-thinking people?

I was reading a complaint by Peter W. Wood about the horror of universities substituting "micro-credentials" for good old Western Civ.

Once there was something else: a curriculum organized around the concept of Western civilization, and built on a hierarchy of courses that led uphill to a challenging summit.

But actually, what was really going on in the good old days of "a liberal education" was mere indoctrination, to make sure that the privileged lads that got to be striped-pants boys would have a proper grounding in ruling-class ideology. If it educated people in the wisdom of the ages, it was an accident.

For instance, what was the purpose of the system of examinations in imperial China?  La Wik:

Since the exams were based on knowledge of the classics and literary style, not technical expertise, successful candidates were generalists who shared a common language and culture, one shared even by those who failed.  This common culture helped to unify the empire and the ideal of achievement by merit gave legitimacy to imperial rule[.]

But when a bunch of uncouth Europeans showed up in the 19th century, the Mandarins didn't have a clue what to do with them.

That is why it is perfectly unexceptional that today's universities should be force-feeding lefty corn mush down the throats of good little goslings.  That's what ruling classes always do to keep the dynasty in power.  It makes certain that nobody thinks an unapproved thought.

Maybe this is a good thing, if you are a deplorable, for although it means that the striped-pants boys are clueless when Attila the Hun rides into town, and that is not good, it also means that they are clueless when Trump descends the escalator.

I have been thinking a lot lately about the defenestration of Richard Nixon 44 years ago, since the establishment is attempting a repeat of that monstrous injustice.  Here is the key difference.  Back in 1974, it was only thirty years since World War II, when the ruling class last had to get a clue.  But now it is 70-odd years since the end of World War II, and 70 years since the ruling class has had to confront reality and unify the nation and lead it to victory.

In my view, it is only war and revolution that force a ruling class to get its act together.  Without an existential challenge to its rule, a ruling class goes soft: no need to weed out the weak reeds when there is no existential struggle needed to maintain its power.

But Trump, never forget, is different.  He's been through all kinds of ups and downs in his business career, and it means that he is a lot tougher than the privileged scions who have lived their lives being wafted aloft.

Still.  I do wonder what President Trump calls the striped-pants boys at dinner over his Diet Coke and his well done steak.

Christopher Chantrill @chrischantrill runs the go-to site on U.S. government finances, usgovernmentspending.com.  Also get his American Manifesto and his Road to the Middle Class.