On Saturday, as people in cities around the world celebrated the end of Donald Trump’s presidency, Twitter’s 21st most-popular trending topic was “Four Seasons Total Landscaping.” By Sunday, as the hangovers and the new reality set in, it had rocketed to number one—a big, beautiful moment in the spotlight for one of the Trump administration’s most schadenfreude-filled failures.

During the press conference held at that Philadelphia landscaping company on Saturday, Trump surrogate Rudy Giuliani learned, on camera, that media outlets had declared Joe Biden the winner of the presidential election. (When Giuliani heard that networks had begun calling the election in favor of Biden, he asked “Which ones?” A reporter replied, “All of them.”) From there we got an interview with the owner of the porno shop next door and a poem about the crematorium across the street. Fake Four Seasons merchandise sprouted up, including a shirt that featured Philadelphia Flyers mascot Gritty on the back of a tractor, with the tagline, “Not the Four Seasons hotel.” The people begged for a detailed piece of journalism that explained exactly how the mistake happened; thus far, no truly satisfying answer has emerged.

If anything, the responsible parties’ feeble attempts at explanation have only made the story more durable. The New York Times explained that Trump campaign adviser Corey Lewandowski claimed to have always wanted to host the event outside the more raucous part of the city, after he and Pam Bondi were overshadowed by protestors and loud music at a press conference on Thursday. According to the Times, multiple people said that the booking was intentional but Trump misunderstood when he was informed about the press conference. Yet, in typical Trumpworld fashion, nobody associated with the campaign or the White House has stepped in to explain exactly why they wound up in front of an industrial garage door for their Waterloo. Someone must have screwed up, but no one will admit how or why, so into the void enters Gritty.

In some ways, this is how it’s been all along. From typo-ridden press releases to the incompetence of their coronavirus response, Trump and his administration make tons of errors and are incapable of admitting it. It’s why “gaslighting” has been such a common way to describe their behavior. It has been going on for years, but at Four Seasons Total Landscaping, it seemed like finally a bit of sun came out from behind the clouds, at the precise moment when Trump’s meaningful power over the future of American life evaporated. I read multiple articles about the contretemps before I saw an extended quotation of what Giuliani said in his remarks. The mistake was flagrant and the gaslighting pronounced, but for the first time in years, it just didn’t matter. It had no material outcome on the health of our democracy or the rights of marginalized people. It was just dumb. 

One source who spoke to the Times described it as a “Rudy special,” calling attention to the fact that for the last few years, Giuliani has displayed an astonishing lack of judgement and attention to detail but has continued to have the ear of the president. And new mistakes keep getting revealed: On Monday, Politico reported that one of the poll watchers invited to speak at the press conference was Daryl Brooks, a perennial New Jersey political candidate and convicted sex offender.

In its sheer inanity, the Four Seasons event is reminiscent of a controversy from a much simpler era: When Barack Obama wore a tan suit to a press conference in August 2014, it was the object of criticism on Fox News and in mainstream media for days, and during the Trump years, it’s been mentioned ad nauseam to describe the low-stakes virulence of partisan rancor in the years before he went down the escalator. On the absolute worst days of the Trump administration—at the height of the family separation crisis or the Charlottesville march—I longed for a political world where cruelty wasn’t openly celebrated, and I thought about that suit. 

The Four Seasons Total Landscaping debacle was about as important as a tan suit, but it was also incredibly symbolic; it’s possible nothing sums up the shambles of the Trump years better than Rudy Giuliani ranting in front of a sign for hazardous chemicals. And there’s something promising in the fact that we’re still talking about it more than 48 hours later. It hasn’t yet been displaced by another absurd, terrifying Trump comment or event. Someday, we might even be able to focus on someone else entirely.

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