Trump and his fascist glorification
Trump has ordered the U.S. Treasury to draft a $1 coin featuring him on both sides, for the purpose of “honoring America’s 250th Birthday and @POTUS,” according to Treasury officials.
Meanwhile, Trump wants the
Washington Commanders to name their planned $3.7 billion stadium after him. A
senior White House source told ESPN:
“It’s what the president wants, and it will probably happen.” Presumably,
Trump’s name will be carved into a granite facade at the stadium’s entrance.
The giant $300 million ballroom that Trump is adding to the
White House is called “the
President Donald J. Trump Ballroom” on the list of donors to the project, and
senior administration officials say the name is likely to stick.
Trump is moving to immortalize himself with his name etched
into coins, carved into pediments, and inscribed into White House marble. He
wants to glorify himself in the most permanent ways possible.
This is what fascist dictators do when in power. Stalin,
Hitler, and Mussolini built monuments to glorify themselves so they’d be
exalted in history.
Democracies don’t do this. They memorialize their heroes
only after they’ve died, and only if the public wants them commemorated.
He must be remembered as the president who claimed without
evidence that an election was “stolen” from him. Who then instigated a coup
that included false electors, threats to state officials, and an assault on the
U.S. Capitol that resulted in five deaths and injuries to 174 police officers.
He should be remembered as the president who, after being
reelected, tried to erase the nation’s memory of what he had done by pardoning
1,600 rioters who had been criminally convicted for participating in the
Capitol attack and 77 people who had conspired with him to carry out the
attempted coup. He called them all “patriots.”
He must be remembered as the president who then usurped the
powers of Congress. Who denied people due process of law. Who prosecuted his
political opponents. Who violated international law by killing people he
labeled enemy combatants. Who sent the military into American cities over the
objections of their mayors and governors. And who openly and brazenly took
bribes.
We must not allow Trump to erase this history with false
tributes to himself, etched into silver, marble, or granite.
Instead, after he is gone, a monument should be erected to
remind future generations of Trump’s treachery and the treachery of officials
who supported him.
It would be a simple building constructed of iron and
cement, containing the records of his attacks on democracy and the names of
everyone who aided him.
Over its doorway would be the words “Trump’s Treason.”
It would be situated on the White House lawn where the Trump
ballroom (since demolished) once stood. It would face Pennsylvania Avenue so
that families visiting the nation’s capital — including those commemorating
America’s 500th anniversary — have easy access, and will long remember this
catastrophe.
