Trump is trying to get his construction projects done before Democrats can stop him when they take control of Congress in two months after last night’s spectacular victories. There’s an urgent reason for that, from his perspective.
Monday afternoon, on the eve of the midterm election, Trump stood at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and delivered his closing argument.
But instead of talking about healthcare, inflation, housing costs, education, or the challenges working families and farmers are facing as the result of his and the GOP’s policies, he went off on an extended, rambling rant about fountains, marble, the “arch,” and his other construction projects. And, repeatedly, about Corinthian columns.
As Barack Obama noted last week, Trump has an obsession with gluing gold-painted decorations to the walls of the Oval Office; Obama called it “arts and crafts.” He’s covering things with gold trim, gold gilded picture frames, elaborate ornamentation, and even regilding monumental statues in DC. He’s torn down the White House’s East Wing, is building a massive ballroom, is ripping up an historic DC golf course, and wants a triumphal arch.
What’s going on here?
Just ridiculing this as “arts and crafts” misses an enormously important aspect of what Trump’s up to; this isn’t simply the vanity of a former real estate developer who likes shiny stuff.
Historians will tell you that there’s a long and disturbing history of brutal authoritarian leaders, particularly fascists, being obsessed with architecture, massive construction projects, and remaking capital cities in their own images.
And now Trump’s doing it to America and few people seem to realize its importance.