The week our institutions showed their rot
Photo by Ed Leszczynskl on Unsplash
In a single week, the president played messiah, his (former) attorney general tried to slip a subpoena, and two congressmen resigned over sex scandals. The pattern is the point.
In just a few days, we watched three stories crash into each other like cars in a slow‑motion pileup.
First, the President of the United States picked a public fight with Pope Leo, posted an AI image of himself in full Jesus‑style savior mode, deleted it after backlash, and then insisted he thought it was just a picture of him “as a doctor.”
Second, his former Attorney General, Pam Bondi, didn’t show up for a subpoenaed deposition about the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, and the Justice Department tried to argue that the subpoena “no longer obligates” her because she’s no longer AG.
Third, two members of Congress, one Democrat and one Republican, announced they’re stepping down amid sexual misconduct allegations, as their colleagues prepared rare expulsion votes against both.
None of this is random. It’s a snapshot of how power really works in Washington right now: cults of personality at the top, legal technicalities for insiders, and consequences only when the scandal gets too loud to ignore.
Trump vs. the Pope, and the AI Jesus image
Pope Leo has been openly critical of the Iran war and the holy‑war language coming out of Washington. In response, Trump spent days on Truth Social calling him “weak on crime” and “terrible” on foreign policy, even claiming that Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican if Trump weren’t in the White House.
As a Catholic, and as someone who cares about basic separation of church and state, that alone is a five‑alarm fire. A U.S. president bragging that he “made” the Pope and that the Pope should be grateful to him is not normal politics. It’s a loyalty test aimed at the head of a global church.
Then came the image.
Trump shared an AI‑generated picture of himself in a red cloak, bathed in light, hand outstretched over a sick person, with adoring figures and patriotic imagery around him. If you were trying to visually say “I am the savior of this nation,” you could not design it more clearly.
Christians across the spectrum, including Catholic leaders in the U.S. and abroad, called it offensive and blasphemous. The image quietly disappeared from his feed after the backlash, not with an apology, but with a shrug and a new story.
Asked about it later, Trump said he did post it but thought it was a picture of him as a doctor, pointing to the Red Cross symbol and medical outfits in the background. British coverage flat‑out noted that this explanation was hard to square with the Jesus‑like pose.
So we’re left with two options:
Either he was perfectly comfortable sharing messianic fan art of himself while attacking the Pope,
Or he looked right at that image and decided to gaslight the rest of us rather than admit anything was wrong.
Neither option is acceptable from any president, let alone one already treating politics like a personal cult. This isn’t “owning the libs.” It’s using faith and war as stage props.
Pam Bondi and the disappearing subpoena
While the Pope feud and AI image grabbed headlines, a quieter story unfolded on Capitol Hill.
The House Oversight Committee had subpoenaed (former) Attorney General Pam Bondi to sit for a deposition on April 14 about the Justice Department’s handling of Jeffrey Epstein’s case and the release of the so‑called Epstein files. That subpoena came only after a bipartisan bloc on the committee forced the chairman’s hand, arguing that survivors deserve real answers.
Bondi was already on thin ice. Earlier this year, she gave what reporters called a “trainwreck” performance in a public hearing about Epstein, with lawmakers from both parties accusing her of dodging questions.
Then, just before her scheduled deposition, the Justice Department notified the committee that Bondi wouldn’t be appearing. Their argument: now that she’s been fired as AG, the subpoena “no longer obligates” her, and they’d prefer if the committee would just withdraw it.
Oversight’s response has been the opposite. Members say the subpoena stands, that she remains “on the hook” for testimony, and that contempt charges are on the table if she keeps defying it.
This is the part that should make your blood boil.
Congress has spent a while performing outrage about Epstein on television. But when it’s time to compel testimony from the people who had their hands on the case, the system suddenly discovers every possible technical escape hatch. Survivors are told to wait. Powerful insiders get letters politely asking if they’d like to come in voluntarily instead.
If you want to know why people don’t trust talk of “Epstein accountability,” this is why. The instinct inside the system isn’t “tell the whole truth.” It’s “how little can we be forced to say?”
Two resignations, and one very loud double standard
Within hours of each other, two members of Congress announced they’re leaving office after sexual misconduct claims became public.
Eric Swalwell, a Democrat from California who’d launched a run for governor, suspended his campaign and then said he’ll resign his House seat after multiple former staffers accused him of harassment, coercion, and assault. In his statement, he called the most serious allegations “false,” but also admitted to “mistakes in judgment” and “inappropriate behavior toward staff,” apologizing to his family and constituents.
Tony Gonzales, a Republican from Texas, followed quickly with his own announcement that he will “retire” from Congress after reporting revealed he’d had a sexual relationship with an employee, now deceased, and after a former campaign staffer publicly described sexually inappropriate messages and advances. An ethics investigation was already underway.
This wasn’t just personal drama. House leaders were preparing expulsion votes against both men, a rare, bipartisan decision in a chamber that can’t agree on lunch. Members from each party were on record saying that if Swalwell and Gonzales didn’t resign, they were ready to vote them out.
So what happened? They moved first. Instead of facing “House expels member over misconduct” headlines, they got to issue statements about “retirement” and “taking responsibility” on their own terms.
That’s bad enough. But it looks even worse when you zoom out.
Dozens of women have accused Donald Trump himself of sexual misconduct over decades, from groping and harassment to assault and rape. He has already been found liable in civil court for sexual abuse and defamation of writer E. Jean Carroll.
On top of that, new sets of Epstein documents show Trump’s name appearing thousands of times; in some analyses, searches of the full trove turn up well over ten thousand references to him. Those references include FBI tip sheets where a source alleged he forced an Epstein victim, about 13 or 14 at the time, to perform oral sex on him, an allegation he denies.
Yet the political system is bending over backward to avoid even putting him under oath on this, while members of Congress lower on the food chain are pushed to resign or face expulsion.
I’m not saying Swalwell and Gonzales should stay. I’m saying the standard can’t be “resign in disgrace” for two, and “too important to fail” for the man with many more allegations, far deeper ties to Epstein, and vastly more power.
This is what rot looks like
Put all of this together, and you get a pretty clear picture:
A president who attacks the Pope, shares AI art of himself as a messiah, and then pretends he thought it was just a wholesome doctor photo.
An attorney general who treats a subpoena in an Epstein investigation as optional the moment she’s out of the job, with the DOJ trying to wave it away for her.
Two members of Congress who resign only when expulsion votes and public scandal make it impossible to stay, while the most powerful man in the room, with the longest list of accusations and the loudest presence in the Epstein files, continues on as if none of it matters.
That’s institutional rot. Not one bad actor, not one “partisan witch hunt,” but a culture that treats power like a personal shield and public office like a brand.
If you’re exhausted by all of this, that’s not a personal failing. It’s the point. Chaos and shamelessness are part of the strategy. The more outrageous the behavior, the more tempted we are to tune out, to say “they’re all corrupt” and walk away.
I don’t have a quick fix. What I have, what I’m trying to build with Politically POMP, is a place where we don’t pretend this is normal, and where we keep connecting the dots between stories the news cycle treats as separate.
Because once you see the pattern, it’s a lot harder for them to get away with calling this just “another crazy news week.” It’s not. It’s a warning light on the dashboard of our democracy.
If this helped you see that pattern a little more clearly, share it with someone in your life who’s starting to feel numb. Numbness is how they win. Paying attention is the first way we start to push back.