“Boondoggle” is a term used to describe an unnecessary project generally considered wasteful and often undertaken or continued due to political motivations. That’s the very definition of Trump’s entertainment palace now being forced by him on the American people. He has taken a wrecking ball to the White House with only pathetic peeps of protest from the people’s representatives in Congress.
This points clearly to his unbridled lust for ever more monarchical splendor, and the erecting of a permanent monument to himself on the property of the people.
Trump’s lack of reading and understanding of history is legendary. Perhaps his lust for monarchical power comes from the absence of his own historical moorings.
From the Founding Fathers came a disdain for the monarchy they fought against in the Revolutionary War. It’s no surprise to a reader of American history that the residence of the President was designed to stand in stark contrast to a king’s palace.
Thomas Jefferson, to emphasize his contempt for monarchical pomp and pretense, even wore his night robe and slippers to receive the royal Ambassador of King George at what became known as the White House.
Government by the people has been the accepted Constitutional model for American governance from the era of the Founders until the time of Trump. Now, Trump has completely transformed the Oval Office by redecorating it with the gaudy gold of Mar-a-Lago. Previous occupants of the Presidency would hardly recognize it.
One is reminded of the “Gilded Age” at the turn of the previous century. But even the barons of industry of the time, Rockefeller, Morgan, and a handful of others, didn’t actually immerse themselves in such glitter.
Presidents through the centuries have viewed their time in the White House as temporary, much like renters view their time in an apartment or rental house as temporary. They would never dare to tear down part of a rental without permission from the owner. That’s something landlord Donald Trump should clearly understand.
What Trump seems not to understand is that he is the temporary resident in the house that belongs to the people of the United States. So, asking permission of the people or of their representatives did not to matter to him before tearing down the east wing of the historic house he is at best only caretaking.
Trump seems driven by appearances, so gold and “the biggest” have become symbols of his self-importance.
Possible plans for a so-called “Arc de Trump” towering over the Lincoln Memorial portend further mischief by Trump fostered by a weak reading of European history. Is this gigantic Napoleonic edifice intended to be a staging ground for more military parades and further symbolism of Trump’s touted triumphs?
Trump says he’s not a king, but all the signs show he yearns to be one. His excesses are far greater than mere boondoggles. They are symbols of Trump’s maniacal monarchical disdain for the vital underpinnings of American Democracy, well symbolized by these most recent arrogant desecrations of our heritage.
Bob Brown is a former Republican Montana Secretary of State and state Senate President. He lives in Whitefish.