He may talk rubbish but Trump has an eye for beauty, and that is a breath of fresh air | Simon Jenkins

TGréeur warning. Some readers can find it disturbing. All that Donald Trump does not say is crazy and a lie. Not all It’s money. Part of this is even deserve to be said. When he came to power, one of Trump’s first actions was extraordinary. He directed his fire on what he considered the ugliness of American architecture. He demanded that at least the federal buildings be “visually identifiable as civic buildings and respect the regional, traditional and classic architectural heritage in order to raise and embellish public spaces and ennoble the United States”. All plans were to be submitted to Washington for his approval.

There was more than a element of psychological obsession in such a bureaucracy. American classicism – born of an admiration for the Republicans of France – was a cult throughout the 19th century. The White House was based on a Dublin manor. This week, it was announced that it was to get what was still missing, a new sumptuous ballroom in which to receive and entertain foreign dignitaries. It must be classic, without any sense to try to make it modern. That a president seeks to revive the regional and European style in the face of incessant American modernism is a breath of fresh air.

This aesthetic interest extends to the landscape. Trump left Scotland this week, clearly still bubbling on wind turbines on its coastal golf courses Turnberry and Aberdeen. In Turnberry Eight Tour above a hill inside the land. The president cannot avoid the sight of wind turbines. “Ugly as hell”, “monstrosities”, “so noisy and so dangerous”, and a threat to “the tourism industry of Scotland”, he described them.

Turnberry has lost tens of millions of pounds during the decade since he bought it, but he likes golf and the country of origin of his mother, Scotland. The course also has the most exquisite view of an old lighthouse on the prominent island of Ailsa Craig through water. There is no doubt: turbines spoil the setting.

Everything Trump says about wind energy killing birds and leading crazy whales – most garbage – it is undeniable than about 4,000 giant turbines now profane the water on Scotland. There is no sign of an Scottish politician showing the slightest concern for their visual impact. The main consideration is the proximity of a turbine with the grid, in other words profit. The price was a real loss of savagery in the former glorious islands.

Trump can be wrong to make fun of the value of renewable energies, and he can talk about nonsense of other ailments of turbines. But it is not wrong to demand to consider how and where to locate them. He pleads that in the United States, they “kill the beauty of our landscapes, our valleys, our beautiful plains”, and he is right. From what I saw in California, turbines are located without thinking of their picturesque impact.

The reality is that I do not remember a single British minister who would mention these days picturesque beauty as a consideration in a field of politics, whether energy or planning or transport. There is a generation, little in Great Britain would also have dared to complain about the construction of ugly petrol stations to an open country, where most are now empty and abandoned. So now, nobody – apart from Trump – dares to complain about turbines. Generally sent offshore by the Cameron government in the 2010s, they must now return to the ground, seduced by the crazy subsidies of the ED Miliband Energy Secretary.

In the spring, Trump’s most remarkable initiative. He announced that he would take over from the New York Transport Authority The future of his notoriously dark station, the original having been demolished in 1963. An adventurous plan had been drawn up during his first mandate by its president of the Fine Arts Commission, Justin Shibow. It was for a return to the neoclassical precursor of the station, widely considered to be the best terminus and partner of the United States of the majestic Grand Central on the road.

In April, Trump duly named the federal rail operator Amtrak to relaunch the Shobow project with a price of $ 7.5 billion. His Majesty must go back to the initiative of a president wishing to demonstrate the stylistic taste in the American public sector. Eat your heart in Liverpool street; get lost had.

Obviously, there is a limit to what Trump can change in just four years in power. Much of what he does is psychodrama and game. The president with whom he becomes comparable is Teddy Roosevelt after 1900. He also tested the limits of presidential power. He too was frantic to direct the daily news program. But he too seemed to worry about the natural environment of America, its forests and its deserts and a role for Washington in their guard.

Showing aesthetic sensitivity is today considered a weakness of a politician. Breathe the words of art, conservation or natural beauty in the presence of Keir Starmer and you are rejected as a Nimby.

Where Trump ends up directing his country and the Western world may well prove to be alarming. It is certainly impossible to predict. But I find it refreshing to have a leader without ashamed of talking about beauty and ugliness. I like him to be ready to discuss style. Above all, I invite him to call a picturesque abomination when he sees one.

• Do you have an opinion on the questions raised in this article? If you wish to submit an answer of up to 300 words by e-mail to be considered for publication in our Letters section, please click here.