UFC fighters in the White House with Marine escort, July 14, 2026 - Getty Images
Steve Timmer
by Steve Timmer
Jun 17, 2026, 2:00 PM

Bread and circuses

I was arrested by the orgasmic trillings of a couple of dudes from Wright County, the febrile center of the Febrile Crescent.

Michael Holstrom is a Republican state senator and Dustin Grage is a Republican, um, influencer.

Note first the hive-mind-like quality of the two presentations. Do you think these two might suckle at the same place? I do.

Yes, the ‘left’ has no answer for this spectacle. Jeepers, I hope not.

But Holmstrom and Grage demonstrate the truth of the Roman poet Juvenal’s caustic statement that Rome’s citizens had devolved into caring only for ‘bread and circuses.’ Only here, Trump gets the bread, and Michael and Dustin get the circus.

The Trump Circus on the White House lawn for Trump 80th birthday was a spectacle; Trump gave the thumbs-up several times, so at least no defeated gladiators were put to death. The Circus had it all, or most of it, anyway: flying motorcycles, gladiators hanging out in the Indian Treaty Room, military escorts for UFC guys in short shorts, the beatings, and a chef’s kiss: the defamation of a former First Lady. The streaming rights that Michael Holmstrom used to watch were granted to David Ellison, who along with his father Larry, are Trump cronies, exclusively. Personally, I was disappointed that there weren’t any lions.

It was truly a circus of corruption that the Trump crime family will profit from, between Trump owning a share of the company that put on the show (well, not the military that flew the planes; not yet, anyway), the featuring of Trump crypto ventures, and not least, selling coins struck with the gelatinous visage of the Dear Leader.

And the cost borne by the public is in the tens of millions of dollars.

Michael and Dustin are truly rubes.

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