Trump’s Next Major Project Shows Where His Real Priorities Are
Donald Trump’s next vanity project in Washington will come to fruition sooner rather than later.
The president said Politico on Wednesday said it expects construction to begin on its much-teased “Triumphal arch» (yes, “bow”) in the next two months.
“It hasn’t started yet. It will start in the next couple of months. It will be great. Everybody loves it,” Trump said. “They also like the ballroom. But they like the Arc de Triomphe.”
THE “Trump bow” will be erected near the Arlington Bridge, across from the Lincoln Memorial, according to the president. It will be modeled on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, the historic monument that commemorates those who fought and died for France during the country’s revolution and the Napoleonic Wars.
Earlier this month, Trump claimed that early models of his bow were so evocative that his former speechwriter, Vince Haley, cry to their beauty.
“Vince came in one day and his eyes were shining. He couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. He saw it and he wanted to do it,” the president said at a White House Christmas reception.
The president’s election campaign is the latest in a series of high-profile projects he has launched in the run-up to the country’s 250th anniversary. He’s already hard at work on a 90,000-square-foot ballroom, the construction of which apparently required the complete demolition of the East Wing of the White House, despite the fact that Trump had promised months earlier that the project would be “near but not touching” the presidential mansion.
Trump also renovated Jackie Kennedy’s famous rose garden, mowing down the flowers to literally open up paradise; emptied Lincoln’s bathroom, transforming it from Lyndon B. Johnson’s favorite office in a horror of eyes covered with marble; and swapped the lush green tones and tall ferns of the historic Palm Room for white paint and framed photos of plants.
Meanwhile, his administration is carrying out its own demolition, apparently planning to destroy some 13 historic buildings on the grounds of the former St. Elizabeths Psychiatric Hospital to expand Department of Homeland Security facilities.
