On Monday, the Ohio State football team travelled to the White House in celebration of winning the College Football Playoff National Championship. Ohio State’s team prepared long and hard in training and practice, working together as a unit to win this championship. In a hilariously embarrassing moment at the White House, Vice President JD Vance, ever the fan, never an athlete, eagerly reached toward that hard-earned trophy to tap into that winning vibe, to bask in borrowed glory, and fumbled the grab, causing the trophy to come apart in two pieces, the base falling to the ground, the top appropriately rescued by true athlete TreVeyon Henderson. Vance clearly had no idea what he was doing. Rather like what he and his fellow non athlete boss (trundling around a golf course in a cart does not qualify) are doing to this country. They are avid and eager to be in the game, but have no coherent strategy, other than to crush (or deport) the opposition. They use bombast, threats and fear. They relish breaking the rules, and brush off any questioning by the refs, no matter how egregious the foul. They seek to divide and conquer, eschewing sportsmanship and teamwork, and our country, the home team, risks coming apart and falling to pieces. Cut $880 million of safety net funding. Refuse FEMA funding to Democrat-led states. Cut funding to states who choose to follow their state laws. Cut grants to private universities who carry out important safety and health research because they dare to stay true to their educational mission. Sue private law firms. Insist vaccines are a personal choice (but abortion isn’t), and vitamin A is great. Give tax breaks to the billionaires. Tariff the bejeezus out of our allies and trading partners based on fuzzy math and fundamental misunderstanding of basic economics. Threaten denaturalization of those who disagree. Travel bookings to the US are down 25%, and down 70% from Canada as the administration uses invasive surveillance technology to troll social media and detain tourists on the flimsiest of excuses. Boeing is losing contracts. Risk of recession is looming. It’s clear that Trump is fumbling the ball, so he distracts us with foul call (Greenland!) after foul call (fentanyl!) after foul call (Canada!) to hide the fact that we are losing yardage both here and abroad. No amount of second hand laurels can hide the fact that Trump and Vance disdain the rules of fairplay, commit legal and moral foul after foul, do not care who gets hurt, and accept no penalty. It’s all part of their crooked game. And we are the losers. We are the ones being played.