General Discussion

B.See

(8,784 posts) Tue May 12, 2026, 10:21 PM 1 hr ago

ERASURE IN PLAIN SIGHT: The Trump D.C. Plan to Replace History with HIS story.

There are two sides to the small man's coin I think. The one side, braggadocious, full of false self-pride, self centered and self aggrandizing bluster. The type who fancies himself (emphasis on 'fancies') the greatest thing since sliced bread. And the other, equally miserable side, full of loathing for men and women FAR greater (in every respect) than he. And seems to me, there's no coin smaller than one Donald-J Trump, in spite of the three inch lifts, the puffy hair, the garish red tie, and the padded shoulders of that clown blue (uniform?) of his.

His is the kind of envy that tears up perfectly crafted peace accords only to find himself struggling to achieve anything resembling the original, and that rails against Obamacare while having failed, in two maladministrations, to come up with a pale imitation, or even "the concept of" a pale imitation.

Which, btw, is why his feeble mind is in turmoil in the dead of night, railing against Obama and others, accusing them of treason for, what? Not genuflecting in his wake, or for being better human beings than he could ever be?? Can't figure which.

And which... btw, explains his contempt for all of the edifices, monuments, and landmarks in Washington D.C. that REMIND him of that former greatness that he is so envious of. That remind him of the principles, ideals, and accomplishments he so loathes - because THEY and their shared history, are the antithesis of everything HE STANDS FOR.

He's hell bent or rewriting it all. In HIS image. And it will one day be our duty to undo his blasphemy and his carnage, by restoring it (and our country... btw) to what it was BEFORE.

The dark purpose behind Trump’s Washington makeover - SALON Trump's grand plans for the nation's capital aren't just personal monuments. They are rooted in erasure

(i've captured what i could from the article, but there's so much more)

...each time I read about or see plans for (Trump's) proposed triumphal arch, which would stand in a traffic circle that marks the end of the bridge and the beginning of the cemetery’s formal entrance, I think of that view [the flicker of the eternal flame marking the graves of John and Jacqueline Kennedy, with Arlington House illuminated by floodlights on the slope above] and how it could soon be no more. Plans for the arch were preliminarily approved in mid-April by Trump devotees who sit on the Commission of Fine Arts. The graves of America’s fallen soldiers will be obstructed, the eternal flame blocked — and from the cemetery, the majestic view of the Lincoln Memorial obscured — by a 250-feet monument. To Donald Trump

Knowing his history of branding and licensing his surname, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. But there is something else beyond self-memorialization that undergirds Trump’s plans not just for the arch but also for his remake of Washington itself — an architecture of erasure that seeks to undermine the living history of Black and brown Americans, women and the LGBTQ+ community, and to paper over the legacy of the post-World War II liberal order.

Many writers, including me, have argued that history doesn’t matter to Trump. He has never shown any serious regard for it; he has never sought to learn lessons from it. The ongoing debacle in Iran is proof enough of this.

But now I think we have been wrong, at least to a degree. History does matter to Donald Trump, in the sense that he wants to alter it. The nation’s liberal past is yet another one of his renovation projects, something he believes he can gut and replace with paver-stones and country club chic. Trump knows that to elevate himself, he must first attempt to erase what — and who — came before. It’s now on us to not forget.