Yes, there really is a Trump brand softball. But wait! There’s more.

I spotted this particular ball yesterday evening while kayaking on the Potomac River maybe a half mile downstream from Trump National Golf Course. The ball was barely visible on the shoreline in a swampy mix of mud and decaying leaves. My feet made a sucking sound as I went to retrieve it.

Back at a gravel bar I washed the mud and algal slime off the ball and took a picture. Then I checked into CNN: The House had just taken its vote to condemn the president for his racist comments.

Clearly the river’s idea of a joke.

A couple of additional items of interest. For one, the ball was made in China. It says so in small type on the reverse. Also the name of the model of the ball, the “stote,” is the obsolete form of the word stoat, aka weasel. This stealthy and highly effective carnivore belongs to the genus Mustela, whose members have pungent scent glands used for marking territory and attracting females. Of course the river knew all this.