President Donald Trump’s penchant for slapdash D.C. makeovers was subjected to a brutal takedown by his hometown’s newspaper of note.
The New York Times on Sunday obliterated Trump’s gold-paint, wrecking ball plans — and dismissed his demands for an “Arc de Trump” as absurd.
“The proposed ‘Arc de Trump’ in Washington is less a monument than a gaudy construction the height of a skyscraper,” wrote Paul Goldberger, a former architecture critic for The Times, “a travesty that, if built, would dramatically change the landscape of the nation’s capital.”
Goldberger is not alone in being repulsed by Trump’s proposed arch.
The National Park Service says the proposed 250-foot triumphal arch would harm 37 historic sites across Washington and veterans warn its observation deck would let tourists stare at private funerals in the Arlington National Cemetery.
On Sunday, Goldberger argued the criticism is the reason Trump feels a need for developer speed.
“This is probably why President Trump is so eager to get it made as fast as he can,” wrote Goldberger. “It would be an unavoidable monument to a presidency and a man whom many Americans would rather not honor so conspicuously, if at all. He understands that once it is there, it will be hard to for anyone to make it go away.”
Goldberger dismissed Trump’s other design plans for D.C. — slapping gold paint on bronze statues and demands to make the Eisenhower Executive Office match the white house — as intrinsically tacky “fiascos.”
“It will look cheap,” Goldberger scoffed. “It will be effectively ruined.”