Some of you may remember a character that John Belushi played on the original Saturday Night Live show. He’d storm into a party, crap the place up, eat all the food in sight, sprawl out semi-conscious on the couch, and spurn every implicit or explicit hint from his exhausted hosts that it was past time for him to hit the road and never return. The character’s name was The Thing That Wouldn’t Leave.

Last night, Florida Man took over the role. And, predictably, some of our “objective” press outlets, having learned nothing lo these past six years, proceeded to behave as if it was all perfectly normal. To wit, this news flash from CNN: “Former President Donald Trump announces another run for the White House and enters the 2024 race, aiming to become only the second U.S. president ever elected to two nonconsecutive terms.”

Wow, he’s potentially the next Grover Cleveland! (As if Trump could even name Grover Cleveland.)

Is that really the sum total of what a news flash should say about Trump’s announcement? Because it behooves me to suggest that an objective, accurate, factual opening to the story should go something like this, since not a single word of it is in dispute:

Donald Trump, the twice-impeached ex-president whose last act in office was to incite a violent insurrection for the purpose of staying in power after being rejected by 7,000,000 votes, and who is currently at risk of being criminally indicted in Washington for allegedly stealing classified documents, or in Georgia for pressuring officials to invent votes after the race was over, has decided to run again, defying pleas from many in his party that he stand down.

Otherwise, today, I’m at a loss for words.