The destruction of the East Wing of the White House, the image of Trump's boundless ambition
NEW YORK - Before the orange cyclone hit the city, Washington was a much more sober place.
Al Gore loved hosting small dinner parties where academic debates were discussed. One such dinner revolved around the meaning of metaphor. “I love metaphors,” then-Vice President Gore drawled to The Washington Post. “And the more complex and arcane, the better.”
What would Gore say about the unapproved, unhistorical, and abominable destruction of the East Wing commissioned by Donald Trump ? He'd say that in the United States capital, we've never seen a more transparent metaphor. It's neither complex nor arcane. It's simple and visceral. A punch in the face, metaphorically speaking...
“Trump is saying, 'I can do whatever I want and no one can stop me!'” says David Axelrod, a White House official during the Obama administration. “This particular case is striking because the issue is so resonant.”
“Anyone who has worked in the White House feels awe for every wall of that place. However dilapidated it was, it had a certain dignity. It was the majestic, silent citadel of American power, not the palace of a mad king. Trump has a frenzied desire to destroy history and rewrite it himself.”
A garden planted by Jackie Kennedy was bulldozed. The woman with the best taste in the history of the White House was bulldozed by the man with the worst taste in the history of the White House.
Many of Trump's voters wanted to see him take a wrecking ball to Washington, but I doubt they meant it that literally.
Melania probably doesn't mind: During her husband's first term, she only made a couple of visits to the East Wing , where the first lady and her staff's offices were located, as The New York Times' Katie Rogers recounts in her book about first ladies, "American Woman." And so far this term, she hasn't been seen there much either.
Treasury Department employees, who work directly across the street from the demolition site, were warned not to share photos of the construction.
They must feel it's a desecration, as happened in 1980 when Trump vandalized Bonwit Teller's limestone friezes, which he had previously promised to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to build Trump Tower.
The friezes had little artistic merit, said a “vice president” of the Trump company, identified as “John Baron,” a fake name Trump himself used, as he acknowledged in a lawsuit against him for using hundreds of illegal Polish immigrants for the demolition.
But Trump has so little respect for this 123-year-old symbol of American history that before razing an entire side of the White House , he didn't consult with planning officials or Congress. It's as if he were demolishing a gas station.
When I was a child visiting the White House with my mother, we loved hearing foreign tourists ooh and aah over how relatively small and modest the presidential residence was.
Its simplicity was part of its charm. We didn't have the grand castles of European nobility we were trying to leave behind: The White House was simply a beautiful house with an attractive facade.
Trump doesn't do small or modest things. He dedicates grand, showy odes to himself. When Trump first ran for office, the joke was that he was going to plaster his name on the facade of the White House, as he did on all his other properties.
And now it's happening: White House officials say Trump plans to name the ballroom after himself.
Another example, as Rahm Emanuel says, that Trump wants to command, not govern.
“He believes the only mistake is not doing what's in one's own best interests,” Axelrod notes.
The president has the kind of narcissism that drives him to do whatever it takes to keep everyone's eyes on him. He ignores the law, procedures, and consequences.
More than a dance, his presidency is a wild pogo stick that delights in transgressing and provoking.
He orders the construction of a $300 million, 8,400-square-meter gilded ballroom that will overshadow the main building, while the government is shut down and people are left without jobs.
He fills the Oval Office with tasteless gold. He sues everyone at will. He subjects his enemies to legal torture. He deploys military troops in US cities.
He ignores due process and kills alleged traffickers by bombing their boats in the water.
"I think we're just going to kill those who bring drugs into our country, don't you think?" he said Thursday. "We're going to kill them."
Trump's talent lies in finding those wormholes in the system that he can exploit for his own satisfaction or economic benefit—things that aren't specifically prohibited because neither the Founding Fathers nor anyone else ever imagined that someone of such low standing could rise so high.
Bloomberg's Tim O'Brien said that by seeking private financing for the ballroom, Trump could encourage influence peddling, further defrauding the presidential inauguration.
After turning the Justice Department into his own vigilante gang, Trump now seeks to further undermine the once prestigious department by presenting an outrageous demand: he wants the Justice Department to give him $230 million in compensation for prior federal investigations against him. The New York Times editorial board called it "a stunning act of self-dealing."
Trump previously had no problem aiming to overthrow the government he himself led. Now he has no problem threatening to sue the government he leads if they don't let him pay $250 million.
“We the people,” the opening phrase of the United States Constitution, is almost quaint: we are now governed by the whims of a single person.
On Friday, Trump suspended trade negotiations with Canada because he disliked an advertisement commissioned by the province of Ontario that quoted a radio address by President Ronald Reagan criticizing import tariffs.
Trump, who publishes a wealth of AI-powered fake garbage, called the ad “FAKE.” (The Reagan quotes were accurate, but in a different order.) The Canadians suspended the ad.
It was like when Trump unilaterally imposed a 50% tariff on Brazil because that country's justice system dared to prosecute Jair Bolsonaro , who, as president, also tried to steal the election from his successor.
Or like when Trump started talking about bailing out his right-wing ally in Argentina, potentially worth $40 billion, and promised to quadruple the amount of Argentine beef the United States buys with a lower tariff, infuriating impoverished American cattle ranchers.
Trump can unleash any delusional impulse and no one can stop him.
“Congress is adrift,” Senator Lisa Murkowski told The Times’ Carl Hulse about parliamentary oversight of Trump’s legally questionable military maneuvers and retaliatory tariffs. “It’s as if Congress has given up, and that’s not a good sign for the American public.”
Congress is adrift, the White House is a shipwreck, Trump is combing the waters of the Caribbean, and James Comey and Letitia James are already forcing them to walk the plank. And Jack Smith and Adam Schiff could be next.
And we're drowning in nautical metaphors while the president steals and plunders. He's a pirate, and not one of those who dress up for Halloween.
Translation by Jaime Arrambide
lanacion
