Believe me when I tell you Washington is going through stages of grief at the sudden demolition of the White House East Wing.

The wreckage looks like a crime scene, with President Donald Trump's thumbprints on it. He didn't ask or tell people, he just destroyed a sacred structure that sang of American history. Vintage Trump.

The mood of the city is falling fast. As if we weren't already demoralized with lost jobs, shuttered museums and a closed Zoo. Cafes are quiet. The government shutdown is further loss of lifeblood.

Believe me when I tell you there's nothing going on in Congress to end the October shutdown.

The two Senate party leaders pass coldly in the halls without a word. At 64, John Thune, the rookie Republican Senate leader, is the new sheriff in town. This is the South Dakotan's first rodeo.

Seasoned Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, 74, knows this could be his last if he doesn't meet this crucial moment well. The voluble New Yorker's leadership is on the line.

Even in the 53-47 minority, Democratic senators finally feel they are holding on to a win against Thune — and Trump — if they don't let it slip out of their hands.

Remember the line, "It's the economy, stupid"?

As of Nov. 1, the chorus is "It's health care, stupid." That's when a steep rise in medical premiums will hit many mailboxes and become real to voters.

Public sentiment and time favors their side, Democrats believe, so they are not folding.

Medicare and Medicaid are also on the cutting board because of a massive bill that Trump, Thune and House Republicans rushed through this summer. Trump called it "big and beautiful."

In broad daylight, the bill inked permanent tax breaks for corporations and billionaires. The rich got richer, the poor poorer, no bones about it.

Believe me when I tell you my friends in the press fell down on the job in covering this fiscal monstrosity.

They narrated in Trumpian parlance: the "Big Beautiful Bill" as if it was truly a godsend to the average American. Obediently, they echoed Republican talking points more often than not.

Sorry, but that's lazy, not a mistake Dan Rather and the old gang at CBS News would make.

This is especially true of on-air correspondents, who spend too much time cooped up in the crowded White House press office.

The president is cunning and clever that way. He called his posting platform "Truth Social" so that his name in newspapers would be paired with "truth." Every time.

Knowing Trump the way we do, news organizations should not fall for that ruse. Simply put, they should say, "Donald Trump posted this or that statement."

Usually he posts insults, lies or boasts, not to be confused with "truth."

His other methods of managing the press are exhaustion and intimidation. Trump is so relentless in repetition ("radical lunatic left") that he robs that room, the Oval Office, of original questions and civil answers.

His stamina is impressive, for any 79-year-old, and he keeps feeding the birds crumbs, starting at dawn. He also makes hostile remarks, directed at individuals and their news outlets.

Pity the press stuck with a willful and uncouth president.

But have you noticed the absence of editorials condemning his obscene cartoon after the "No Kings" marches? I have not.

There comes a time when they should write something like: "Have you no sense of decency?"

That was the turning point of the Joseph McCarthy-Army hearings in 1954. The "Red Scare," government hunting for former communists, ended then and there.

Believe me when I tell you the Senate has become so partisan that there is only one state that has a Democratic and a Republican senator: Wisconsin.

That number has dropped to a historic low, making it harder to cross lines, make friends, or build coalitions.

When I first covered Congress, I recall several states had mixed representation.

Maine has a Republican, Susan Collins, and an independent, Angus King. But that is all.

Believe me when I tell you a network correspondent referred to the White House "renovation," speaking Trumptalk.

I replied, "A demolition is not a renovation."

Said she: "Point taken."

The author may be reached at JamieStiehm.com. To find out more about Jamie Stiehm and other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, please visit creators.com.

Photo credit: MIKE STOLL at Unsplash