Even in the most neutral of political climates, the idea of a “house of cards” has negative connotations, wafts of precariousness, an eventual and inevitable collapse.

Still, Melania Trump included several of them in her newly unveiled Christmas decor at the White House this week, elaborate playing card structures complete with spires and teeny-tiny American flags. (And make no mistake, they are Christmas decorations; there are no menorahs or other holiday decor on display there.) She added a few little White Houses made of dominoes, too. Dominoes, famously, have just one job: To fall. Their whole reason to exist is to collapse in spectacular fashion—something you probably wouldn’t want to happen to the White House, a symbol of democracy in America.

Christmas decorations in the Green

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