Keeping it Klassy: Trump’s Grandiose Makeovers of the Capital

Several of the world’s signature climbing mountains are located in countries of one-man rule. I’ve witnessed the pervasive presence of such boss men on trips abroad. The experiences strengthened feelings for my own country.

English language news broadcasts in Kenya would begin with the same nine words: “His excellency the president, Daniel Arap Moi, said (or declared, or ordered) today.” The news in Nepal was that King Birenda was touring western reaches of the Himalayan nation.

How different from American traditions and coequal branches of government. Or so I thought — nowadays, I am not so sure. The United States has a bossman, a billionaire with bad taste who is recasting the Capitol in his image. Donald Trump’s reach extends to culture, architecture, and sport, plus the policing of language and purging of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Fox News, this week, had Trump showing off plans for the White House to right-wing pundit Laura Ingraham. The country has needed a giant ballroom “for 150 years,” said our President. Ingraham honed in with a softball question: “Where do you get your attention to detail?”

Trump was vocally critical of Jacqueline Kennedy’s refurbishing of the early 1960s. Our 47th president has done up the Oval Office in gold. He has been showing off a renovation in marble of the Lincoln bathroom. Trump has taken bulldozers to the East Wing of the White House, where I once joined fellow scribes for a delightful dose of self-deprecating humor from the “Silver Fox,” Barbara Bush.

Grandiosity is the new theme for treatment of the people’s possessions. The U.S. Capital has become a canvass for self-glorification and whims. He has sent tanks rolling through its streets in a Moscow-style military parade. During a commemoration at Arlington National Cemetery, he took a page from the Vladimir Putin playbook, recasting Veterans Day as “Victory Day.” The Secretary of Defense has become the Secretary of War.

I lived four years in the capital’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood, a few minutes’ walk from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. It was an island of bipartisanship in the capital, with glorious performances by the National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of exiled Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. The Reagans may have been watching The Sound of Music at the White House, but new music and artistic expression could be witnessed at the Kennedy Center.

Trump has fired the Center’s board of directors, installing a new lineup of partisans (including Laura Ingraham). Out went the professionals, in have come Republican political operatives. The new season on stage has begun with — you guessed it — The Sound of Music. The New York Times, last weekend, carried a wickedly funny piece on the resulting chaos and empty seats.

 Productions such as a scheduled run of Hamilton have pulled out. Trump has installed himself as chairman. Diversity is discouraged. And friends of the President are pushing to name the Opera House for Melania Trump.

Trump has branched off in other directions, a path more easily taken down newly paved-over grass in White House Rose Garden. He would have the Washington Commanders NFL franchise stand down and bring back the Redskins name. Sports stadiums are America’s present day cultural monuments, to which Trump has taken notice. The White House is reportedly in back-channel talks with Commander owners on naming the team’s new $3.7 billion stadium for our President.

All this manages at once to be grandiose, narcissistic, and tacky. Trump is fooling around with our stuff, the possessions of a free people. A humble servant he is not. The President insists upon praise, and indicts those who have dared to investigate him.

I had another walking destination during my four-plus years as Seattle Post Intelligencer Washington D.C. correspondent. The Jefferson Memorial was a destination for reflection. Our country’s third president stood for limited government, individual liberty, church-state separation — themes from the Declaration of Independence that he drafted.

Walls of the memorial carry quotes from wisdom that has guided the country for almost 250 years. Jefferson entered presidential politics when George Washington nobly bowed out, although Washington could easily have won a third term. Jefferson was renowned for hosting dinners of deep discussion.

But in our country last week, cars lined up at food banks while at the White House Donald Trump was dining with billionaires.

This article also appears in Cascadia Advocate.