If you haven’t noticed, President Trump is trying to transform the nation’s capital into his own image, from paving over Jackie Kennedy's Rose Garden for a patio to turning the Oval Office into something that resembles one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces. Then there’s that 400-million-dollar ballroom replacing the East Wing. But this Mar-a-Lago-fication isn’t stopping at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
According to Reuters, Trump is pursuing one of the most dramatic physical makeovers of the capital in modern presidential history, which includes a 250-foot triumphal arch near the National Mall — the Arc de Trump, if you will (which would be taller than the Arc de Triomphe, of course) and a new pedestrian promenade connecting the Lincoln Memorial to the Potomac River that Trump says be named after him. And he just had the Reflecting Pool painted a shade he calls “American flag blue,” which one cultural landscape expert compared to a lap pool. Days after it was refilled, algae started blooming across the surface, turning it green. Workers were sent in to clean it up.
Subtlety has never been Trump’s specialty.
The White House says these projects are about beauty, legacy, and preparing for America’s 250th anniversary. But preservationists, historians, and some lawmakers say something very different is happening: a president working fast to put his own stamp on public spaces that, last time I checked, belong to all Americans.
Paul Farber, the director of Monument Lab, told The Guardian that there’s no real precedent for a sitting president memorializing himself, at this speed, during his own administration.
But getting back to that ballroom. A Public Citizen report revealed that over the last six months, more than half of its publicly known corporate donors have received new or expanded federal contracts worth more than $50 billion. And 16 of the 27 known corporate donors have had federal enforcement actions magically disappear.
That includes antitrust or merger reviews of Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Nvidia; labor cases involving Google and Lockheed Martin; and SEC questions involving Coinbase and Ripple. I’m sure that’s all just a huge coincidence.
Oh, and by the way, we'll probably end up funding at least some of this. For example, Trump originally claimed his ballroom wouldn't cost taxpayers a penny, but then Republicans in Congress tried to get the government to foot a billion-dollar bill for the ballroom’s security infrastructure; that’s been tabled…for now.
Meanwhile, an organization called Hands Off The Arts had a live feed of the Kennedy Center, so Americans could watch the Trump name being taken off the building per a judge's ruling. So that's one Washington monument where the name "Trump" can't be set in stone.
