It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
You wouldn’t be alone if you feel that the US more closely resembles North Korea these days – with giant images of the dear leader scowling down on the citizenry, and his name inscribed everywhere from public buildings to street signs, transportation hubs and self-aggrandizing monuments.
Thursday’s unfurling of a massive banner bearing the visage of Donald J Trump, the 47th US president, on the exterior of the Washington headquarters of the federal justice department was only the latest example of how he has imposed himself on every facet of American life. Some critics have called it “dictator vibes”.
Trump’s mighty persona, it seems, cannot be escaped. And it cannot be ignored. Here’s a look at the some of the places where the president has made himself omnipresent, or seeks to, since his return to office last year: places where people congregate in numbers, or at least used to, are top of Trump’s list to get his name and face:
• The most prominent example is the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, inaugurated in 1971 as a “living memorial” to the assassinated president. Trump added his own name to the center – illegally in the view of critics, including Kennedy’s relatives.
• Similar to the Kennedy Center takeover, the US Institute of Peace was an early victim of Trump’s second-term: most staff were fired, the engravers moved in, and Trump’s name was chiselled into the institute’s wall.
• Giant banners of Trump’s face almost identical to the recent justice department installation were erected at the Department of Agriculture and at the labor department last year.
• Florida state legislature Republicans voted to rename the airport in West Palm Beach the “President Donald J Trump International Airport”.
• Between the airport and Mar-a-Lago is a section of road newly renamed "President Donald J Trump Boulevard".
• It was announced in December that a new “golden fleet” of warships known as "Trump-class" destroyers would be commissioned. Comment: (Wouldn't "Trump-classless" be more appropriate?)
• If the White House gets its way the Washington Commanders’ new $3.7bn, 65,000-seat stadium will be named Trump Stadium.
• Trump’s face could one day get carved into the face of Mount Rushmore. Comment: (Yeah, he's been trying for that one for a while now.)
• The president’s most recent monumental wheeze is a plan for a 250ft arch: a so-called Arc de Trump, to be built on land adjacent to the Potomac River in Washington DC.
• Trump aims to emulate the success of Obamacare name-branding with Trump accounts, a forthcoming savings initiative for new parents.
© 2015 Mutual Fund Observer. All rights reserved.
© 2015 Mutual Fund Observer. All rights reserved. Powered by Vanilla
Comments
Then take steps to prevent the astounding level of lawlessness and corruption from happening again.
Trump administration officials need to be held accountable for corruption, law violations,
and a failure to uphold the Constitution.
Guilty personnel should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law!
Perhaps there will be some movement towards these noble goals after the November mid-term elections?
This is going to get much, much worse soon.
I think we know where it went.
Maybe in 9 months we get a reckoning.