In 1932, Benito Mussolini ordered his architects and builders to create a vast sports complex in Rome. It included a 57-foot obelisk inscribed with the Latin words “Mussolini Dux,” or “Leader Mussolini.” The vanity-project was but one of numerous architectural adventures, both in Italy and in conquered lands such as Ethiopia, aimed at celebrating Fascist actions and Fascist leaders. In the place where Mussolini announced the colonization of Ethiopia, for example, he built a vast Palace of Italian Civilization. It was clearly intended to show that Mussolini was synonymous with the Italian state–that his aesthetic represented the future of how Italy would present itself to the world.
Similar vanity projects, minutely controlled by the countries’ leaders, sprouted up in Nazi Germany, and, more recently, in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, in Orban’s Hungary, and in many other countries that have fallen into the clutches of totalitarian leaders.
In that vein, it’s hardly a surprise that Trump has made aggressive moves to similarly impose his architectural footprint on the country.
Earlier this year, the hotelier-cum-politician ordered the paving over of the White House’s iconic Rose Garden. Then, in August, the White House released an extraordinary Executive Order, “Making Federal Architecture Beautiful Again,” imposing rigid controls over the design of all federal buildings, mandating an adherence to classical architectural principles and outlawing any “brutalist” architecture. The language of the order, its abhorrence of modernism – both the art and its values–and its glorification of the classical tradition, bore stark similarities to the Nazi’s banning of “degenerate art” in 1930s Germany.
In the rare instance that an architect was to deviate from this set of priorities–unlikely, given the current Administration’s propensity to fire any employee who dares to push back against their edicts–Trump’s order required that the president be personally informed.
“In the event the Administrator proposes to approve a design for a new applicable Federal public building that diverges from the preferred architecture set forth in subsection 2(a) of this order, including Brutalist or Deconstructivist architecture or any design derived from or related to these types of architecture, the Administrator shall notify the President through the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy not less than 30 days before GSA could reject such design without incurring substantial expenditures.”
This past month, Trump’s Fascist-architectural impulses have flowered to an even greater extent. First, the president announced–with no oversight or review–that a giant ballroom would be added to the East Wing of the White House. Then, after promising that the integrity of the East Wing wouldn’t be compromised, he let it be known that the entire wing would actually have to be demolished to make way for the 90,000 square feet vanity-project. Then, at speed–like a middle-of-the-night bank heist–the East Wing actually was demolished, with literally no planning or review process, and no breaking mechanism imposed by the fact the White House is a historical building, or rather the historic building, that it is the “people’s house” and is, to a large extent, the pre-eminent symbol of American democracy. And then it was revealed that the new ballroom, the designs for which are–as one would expect–laden with gold baubles, would be paid for by a coterie of more than three dozen big-tech, defense industry, and crypto donors looking to use their open wallets to grease their way into Trump’s good books.
At the same time, on a smaller scale Trump introduced his gaudy gold-and-marble aesthetic into White House bathroom redesigns, Oval Office makeovers and a slew of other public-facing parts of the Executive experience. “Tacky” doesn’t even begin to describe the over-the-top design aesthetic that America’s leader is showcasing.
To cap it all, Trump announced that he would be building a vast Triumphal Arch on the Washington Mall–again, likely skirting years of required planning reviews–and, when a CBS reporter asked him who the arch would be for, he answered “me.”
Further cementing the government’s propensity for ever-more-Orwellian actions, late last week the US Department of Justice began scrubbing references, in court cases, to Trump’s role in the January 6, 2021 insurrection, and started removing secondary references to his actions–including posting online ex-president Obama’s private address–that reflected badly on the MAGA-man.
SFR
While the Trump totalitarian architectural and legal machinations have been picking up steam, the Administration has also been attempting to take hostage tens of millions of American families who rely on food stamps–SNAP benefits–to ensure they can put food on the table each day.
Trump has shown no reticence, during the government shutdown, in using the most creative of financial maneuvers to keep ICE agents paid, and has even accepted (illegally) a private donation to help pay troops during the shutdown. But his Administration has refused to release emergency funds to cover SNAP benefits in November. And, while a two judge late last week issued an eleventh hour emergency ruling aimed at forcing the government’s hand and getting SNAP benefits flowing again, as November got underway it seemed likely that there would, even in a best case scenario, be significant delays in getting the benefits to those enrolled in the program.
All of which gives a sense of Trumplandia’s priorities: fund vanity projects, pour dollars into the security state, scarify the independence and integrity of the justice department, and, amidst the wreckage, leave impoverished Americans scrambling simply to find food for their next meals.
