Seven Ways in Which Trump’s Plans for DC Are Typical Dictatorial Fare
Washington, DC was never the most democratic of capital cities. From the influence of Versailles in the L’Enfant Plan to the baroque reinterpretation of the National Mall under City Beautiful influence, Washington has long evoked European monarchy as much as American democracy. But Donald Trump’s plans go further, echoing the blueprint for the autocratic capital. Seven features stand out:
- Classicism: Albert Speer would not have run afoul of Donald Trump’s executive order, “Making Federal Architecture Beautiful Again.”
- Monumentalism: An “Arc de Trump” tall enough to disrupt flight patterns is almost too on the nose.
- Clean streets: I confess a particular dislike of litter, a temperamental trait I share with Donald Trump and the Chinese Communist Party. But one can take this too far.
- Homeless sweeps: Trump’s purge of homeless encampments echoes the administrative expulsions that preceded the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
- Gun-free zones: Dictators really do not like guns in the capital city. Nor does Jeanine Pirro.
- Self-naming: I once spent a pleasant evening in the president’s box at the Kennedy Center. There were small bottles of champagne in the refrigerator, each marked with the presidential seal. One could imagine living that life. But it takes a special imagination to sit in that box and say, this whole building could bear my name.
- Gold: Everywhere gold. Ramzan Kadyrov would be proud.