Happy Friday or, as I like to call it, the end of yet another Infrastructure Week!
Ever since June 2017, when Vice President Mike Pence uttered the infamous phrase "we're ... calling it Infrastructure Week in this administration," the White House's attempts to drum up enthusiasm for its development plan have ranged from hopeless to downright cursed. The words "Infrastructure Week" have become synonymous with any unsuccessful or clumsy attempts to get an actual policy off the ground, as well as with the administration's odd tendency of pushing infrastructure whenever unfavorable headlines start appearing in the news.
Infrastructure Weeks can be officially sanctioned or arise out of the administration's bungled attempts to prove that, no really, they've got a plan! From best to worst, here is The Week's definitive ranking of all the Infrastructure Weeks to date.
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In many respects, our elected leadership lives every week like it's "Infrastructure Week." And our government is crumbling into dysfunction as a result. [New York]
What happened: The best Infrastructure Week to date happened this week, although that's really not saying much. President Trump met on Tuesday with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), with the trio agreeing to spend $2 trillion on building and fixing things over the next decade. With no formal plan, though, Republicans immediately erupted over the spending while Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney publicly cast doubt on if the bill would ever actually come to pass.
A tweet in memoriam:
Final rating: The only distraction from this most recent Infrastructure Week was the House's hearing with Attorney General William Barr. Otherwise, things went suspiciously smooth, even considering that there is still no plan. Don't worry though: Journalist Judd Legum reports that "another infrastructure week has been scheduled in three weeks." Three and a half out of five.
2. The Möbius Strip Infrastructure Week
When: March 26-30, 2018
Distinguishing quote:
"We joke in D.C. that every week is Infrastructure Week," said Republican strategist Alex Conant. "Clearly, the president's team wants to talk about infrastructure but are overtaken by events. It's hard for bridges and roads to compete with the headlines coming out of the White House." [The Washington Examiner]
What happened: One month after a very doomed Infrastructure Week attempt in early 2018, the White House once again tried to put on an Infrastructure Week like nothing had happened, thereby proving that time is a flat circle and nothing matters. President Trump's "major speech," however, was derailed by his decision to talk about Syria and Roseanne instead (CNN called it "rally-like," which is a non-judgmental way of saying it was totally bonkers). The speech also birthed one of Trump's banner quotes: "I was always very good at building. It was always my best thing. I think better than being president, I was maybe good at building."
Additionally, The Washington Post noted at the time that "this latest [infrastructure] week is happening while Congress is on recess, Trump faces high-profile allegations of marital infidelity, the Russia investigation continues to make headlines, and the administration grapples with staff turnover and contentious firings." The Post also observed that Congress had only allocated $21 billion to infrastructure up until that point, or about 1 percent of the White House's ultimate goal.
A tweet in memoriam:
Final rating: As far as things that can go wrong during Infrastructure Weeks go, this week was actually okay! Trump even managed to talk about how good he is at building things. Still, this did basically nothing to push his infrastructure plan forward. Three out of five.
3. The State of the Union Infrastructure Week
When: February 5, 2019
Distinguishing quote:
I liked when Trump told Congress that an infrastructure bill was "not an option" but "a necessity." Then I remembered that Trump has been president for years now, that he had control of Congress for most of that time, and that he has never prioritized either proposing or passing an infrastructure package. In the Trump presidency, it's always Infrastructure Week, and it always will be. [Vox]
What happened: The sneaky thing about Infrastructure Week is that it's not really a week: It's a lifestyle. Trump once again tried to sell his infrastructure plan during his State of the Union this year, imploring Congress to pass his proposal. But this being an Infrastructure Week, there was a lot of drama behind scenes: "When ... officials saw the [State of the Union] draft, they urged that the line be deleted because Mr. Trump doesn't actually want Congress to pass the only infrastructure proposal his administration has produced," The Wall Street Journal wrote. The public-private partnerships, which were central to Trump's plan, were quietly taken off the table. Writing for The Week, Jeff Spross called the president's swerve "pretty remarkable."
A tweet in memoriam:
Final rating: Trump kept this particular Infrastructure Week to roughly one evening, which is a minor miracle. Still, hating the plan you're demanding Congress pass seems like, well, losing. Two out of five.
4. Elaine Chao's Infrastructure Week
When: October 9-14, 2017
Distinguishing quote:
Back in Washington, Democrats on the House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee on highways and transit criticized the White House for its failure to produce a fleshed-out legislative package during a hearing Wednesday. "All we do is talk … why are we here pretending?" Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) said during the hearing, according to The Hill. [Fortune]
What happened: Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao celebrated her own Infrastructure Week in October 2017 as the keynote speaker at the American Public Transportation Association expo in Georgia. There she vowed the administration was committed to "rebuilding our critical infrastructure," although she made no mention of a plan.
Additionally, just before Chao's speech, The Washington Post broke the news that Chao had used taxpayer-funded government planes to fly to an earlier Infrastructure Week in Washington. Also during this period in October, frustrations flared on the Hill where the House transportation and infrastructure subcommittee slammed the administration over their continued lack of guidance.
A tweet in memoriam:
Final rating: While Trump has faced his fair share of criticism over Infrastructure Weeks going nowhere, Elaine Chao also deserves to take some of the fall. This week she reiterated the administration's commitment, but her comments were all but empty. Two out of five.
5. The Infrastructure Week Nobody Paid Attention To
When: February 12-16, 2018
Distinguishing quote:
The first thing you need to know about Infrastructure Week is that any week and every week could be Infrastructure Week. [Vice]
What happened: President Trump kicked off the White House's third attempt at an Infrastructure Week by tweeting: "This will be a big week for Infrastructure. After so stupidly spending $7 trillion in the Middle East, it is now time to start investing in OUR Country!" Unlike previous Infrastructure Weeks, Trump actually released a proposal, but the administration's $1.5 trillion plan only offered $200 billion in federal funds and asked states and private businesses to fill in the missing $1.3 trillion. Trump, it would later come out, reportedly hated "central elements of [the plan]."
As would doom so many Infrastructure Weeks, there was also unlucky timing. As The Washington Post reports, this Infrastructure Week attempt was "trampled by the resignation of a White House official over domestic-abuse allegations, the Parkland, Florida, shooting, the indictment of Russian Internet trolls, and allegations of affairs by Trump."
A tweet in memoriam:
Final rating: Having a plan is at least refreshing, but the widely-panned public-private partnerships made it not very realistic. Plus no one was even paying attention over all the other noise in the news. Two out of five.
6. The Original Infrastructure Week
When: June 5-9, 2017
Distinguishing quote:
The week of public events for Trump's infrastructure week are missing one thing: an actual infrastructure bill plan. [Business Insider]
What happened: The White House's original Infrastructure Week took place in June 2017 as a means of garnering support for President Trump's $1 trillion revamp of America's roads, bridges, and other physical structures and facilities. The only problem: There wasn't any plan.
Alright, fine, that wasn't the only problem — the whole week was "overshadowed [by] ex-FBI Director James Comey's gripping testimony on Capitol Hill," The Hill reports. Plus there was the issue of Trump repeatedly going off script and talking about basically everything but infrastructure. Additionally, Trump had vowed to make infrastructure a priority in his first 100 days in office, which, alas, expired over a month earlier, on April 29, 2017.
A tweet in memoriam:
Final rating: Major points for coining the phrase "Infrastructure Week," deductions for there not being a plan. Two out of five.
7. The Charlottesville Infrastructure Week
When: August 14-18, 2017
Distinguishing quote:
[Trump] began answering questions by bragging about the house he owns in Charlottesville — and how it's also the home of one of the "largest wineries" in the United States. [Glamour]
What happened: After the first Infrastructure Week was lost to the hullabaloo of the Comey testimony, the Trump administration decided to regroup a few months later and reiterate its intention of launching development projects across the country. As part of that effort, Trump signed an executive order intended to jumpstart the process of approving infrastructure projects.
Unfortunately, the timing was again a disaster: Trump's Tuesday press conference, ostensibly about infrastructure, took place during the aftermath of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, where counterprotester Heather Heyer was killed by a white supremacist. The president's remarks quickly devolved into one of his most infamous rants ever. He began the Infrastructure Week Q&A by boasting about his properties in North Carolina, then spent the rest of the time arguing that there were "very fine people on both sides" of the Charlottesville protests.
Oh, and there was still no plan.
A tweet in memoriam:
Final rating: If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again. But defending neo-Nazis during your Infrastructure Week Q&A is pretty terrible no matter what. Zero out of five.
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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