Churchill once said of John Foster Dulles that he was “the only case I know of a bull who carries his own China shop around with him.” Had Churchill miraculously lived another 60 odd years, I think he would agree that when it comes to this particular metaphor, Dulles has been outclassed. At the dawn of Trump’s second term, we even see that the bull has become self-aware and is deliberately trying to break as much of the federal crockery as he can get away with.

Last week, Trump issued an executive order proposing the shuttering of seven obscure federal agencies, notably including the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Churlish former Labor Secretary Robert Reich went into high dudgeon, or in Reich’s case maybe just dudgeon, to let us know “Tyrants view educated citizens as their greatest enemy. Slaveholders stopped the enslaved from learning to read. Nazis burned books. Dictators censor media. That’s why Trump is attacking education, science, museums, and the arts. Ignorance is the handmaiden of tyranny.”

Well, I guess you’re just going to have to trust me when I tell you that I’m no fan of tyranny, slavery, Nazis, or book burning. I have written tens of thousands of words opposing government censorship, I have made a living reading and reviewing books, and I spent 17 years on the board of a private school. I hope it is apparent I care about knowledge and education. And speaking as an ostensibly educated, literate, patriotic American, I am asking the Trump administration to follow through and please, please, please in italics, stick it to America’s librarians.

To be clear, I’m also excited by the prospect of any number of museums being collateral damage, but the issue of political insanity in museums, particularly the art world, has already been well noted. Indeed, you know most museum officials have anti-American politics the same way you know that someone is vegan, into astrology, or didn’t vote for Trump – they’ll tell you. Five years ago, the director of the Met actually said to The New York Times “There is no doubt that the Met and its development is also connected with a logic of what is defined as white supremacy.’’ I had to read “its development is also connected with a logic of what is defined as” a few times and got so turned around I didn’t know whether to object to the self-abasing radicalism or elocution lessons from Kamala Harris.