All the President's Monuments

Like great leaders before him, our Chief Executive takes much satisfaction in donating his name to all sorts of things. Will that generosity end well?

Of all the vicious, petty slanders leveled against our President, none is more egregious than the mud slung at recent efforts to put his name on government buildings and other entities.

These include the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. (now known as the Trump-Kennedy Center) and the U.S. Institute of Peace (now the Trump U.S. Institute of Peace). Likewise, Palm Beach International Airport near his Florida estate will soon become Trump International Airport, and a highway linking Armenia and Azerbaijan, two squabbling countries that reached a peace deal the President says he helped negotiate, is now the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity.

Trump has told owners of the NFL’s Washington Commanders that the team’s new stadium should be named after him. The 250-ft.-tall triumphal arch he plans to erect near the Lincoln Memorial is, perhaps inevitably, being called the Arc de Trump, after a (smaller) Paris counterpart. Some Republican legislators want to re-title New York City’s Penn Station, Washington Dulles International Airport and the capital’s rapid-transit system in his honor. That last one would become the Trump Train.

On a smaller scale, the President has created the Trump Card, an immigration visa for foreigners who fork over $1 million; TrumpRx, a federal website offering allegedly low-cost medications; and Trump Accounts, a form of tax-deferred savings for children. Also, the new Trump Class of battleships, of which the $20 billion USS Defiant will be the first; a $1 Trump coin to commemorate the nation’s 250^th anniversary next year; and a newly approved Trump gold coin whose value, currently in the thousands of dollars, will fluctuate with the price of that metal.

Not surprisingly, the Trumpfication movement has outraged many citizens. They accuse the President of indulging his ego at taxpayer expense, setting a dangerous precedent for successors and, in some cases, breaking the law. Normally, Congress must approve major changes in name or substance to such federal projects as buildings, immigration categories and naval ships, though the Republican-dominated legislature has so far looked the other way.

The President has also been accused of violating centuries of tradition. Until now, Americans have not tolerated such changes, nor have presidents dared to make them, while the namesake in question is still in office, or even alive. The Kennedy Center and other buildings took on the 35th President’s name only in the aftermath of his 1963 assassination. The U.S. State Department headquarters in D.C. didn’t become the Harry S. Truman building until 28 years after he died. And a rare congressional attempt to label a building for a sitting president was vetoed in 1975 by the intended honoree, Gerald R. Ford.

Trump’s supporters note correctly that great men have been naming things after themselves for ages. Alexander the Great founded his imperial capital three millennia ago, and Alexandria today is one of the most important cities in Egypt. Berlin was full of monuments to Germanic greatness long before Adolph Hitler began adding his own in the 1930s. Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, North Korea’s Kim Il Sung, India’s Narendra Modi and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan named cities, roads, schools and buildings after themselves. No big deal.

Great leaders tend to have large egos, and a bit of megalomania is a small price to pay for national greatness. Besides, Trump is by trade a real estate developer, accustomed to putting his monicker on things. Though he has built hardly any of the federal projects recently named after him, he still feels capable of such feats – as hinted in his recent proposal to take over war-torn Gaza, remove the inhabitants and turn it into “the Riviera of the Middle East.”

It is tragic that so many Americans refuse to acknowledge such vision, ambition and, yes, greatness. Instead, they cling to outdated concepts like modesty, propriety and restraint. They note that things did not end well for Alexander, Hitler, Saddam and other Trumpian megalomaniacs.

The President does face some risk. His approval ratings have dropped from an average of 52% when he began his second term to around 40% last week. The Iran war and rising oil prices will likely send the number lower. In several polls, only about 15% of respondents said they support putting his name on federal buildings. If such discontent continues, Trump and the Republicans could lose control of Congress in the fall midterm elections.

Aside from voting, however, grouches who don’t want to see the President put his royal imprint on anything have limited options. They can learn to live with his monuments. Or they can write angry letters to legislators and news outlets.

They can also show up at one of the cleverly titled “No Kings” rallies against Trump’s monarchical behavior. The next round is planned for Saturday, in hundreds of U.S. cities. I plan to be in attendance – if only because the President no doubt hates the very idea of an anti-Trump movement that doesn’t even bear his name.