Susan Glasser

Mary Bruce, the ABC News journalist who so calmly and professionally handled that awful situation.

But I'm glad you actually brought up the dinner and the master of the universe, because I've just been thinking, like, I know there have been a lot of, call them iconic moments over the last nine months that really sort of distill that.

the second term Trump.

But for me, I think I am going to remember the one-two punch of the lavishing.

I mean, what other word is there for it than, you know, I mean, practically like just an onscreen, you know, embrace of

I was.

I was.

And I stopped myself.

I used that line on my husband.

That would be terrible.

You know, so this revolting scene of full-on embrace of a murderous autocrat in service of what appears to be, you know, personal business interests as much as

national interests in the Oval Office, attacking a journalist in the most crude terms and threatening to withdraw ABC News' license.

Again, saying this out loud in a way that would have been a scandal with any president of our lifetime, Democrat or Republican, and then following it up with this

This dinner at the White House, there's a photograph of the masters of the universe, as you put it, including Elon Musk and other tech tycoons in the White House for the state dinner.

And, you know, is there any more kind of summing up of the grotesque, corrupted oligarchy in which we find ourselves than this?

You know, I feel like it kind of sums it all up.

Well, I mean, grotesque is is a word.

I mean, what I'm struck by in the very, I think, calculated and largely opportunistic embrace by the tech tycoons of Donald Trump this year.

And remember, these are the people who were given prime seats at the inauguration, booting the political leadership of the country from from the stage and relegating them to the cheap seats.

so to speak.