Trump and his renaming: His name, his city, his world

Everything is mine like my name on the door, that seems to be Donald Trump's motto for Washington. The ballroom at the White House, the Triumphal Arch - Trump wants to immortalize himself everywhere in the city, in the case of the Kennedy Center even literally: He wants to see his name on the facade of the famous cultural institution. Last winter, Trump had the Kennedy Center quickly renamed “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” In usual Me-first fashion, the lettering began with Trump's name.

Back in May, a federal judge banned the renaming and ordered that Trump's name be removed. Because the Kennedy Center is a memorial to the Democratic US President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963, only Congress can rename it, the judge ruled. Judiciary, legislative, executive – Donald Trump is known to have little regard for the democratic principle of separation of powers. And politically motivated name changes are part of his repertoire anyway.

Anyone who turns the Gulf of Mexico into the “Gulf of America” or publishes maps on which the US state of New Mexico, which is governed by Democrats, is suddenly called “New America” is not letting up at the Kennedy Center either. As a sitting US president, inscribing oneself in the memorial for a murdered US president is not just irreverent egocentricity, but a demonstration of power, the politics of history and a culture war.

This text first appeared in wochentaz, our weekly newspaper from the left!

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Trump described the Kennedy Center program as too “woke.” His “compromise suggestion” for the façade was: “Renovated and restored by Donald J. Trump.” Trump has now received another judicial rejection for this plan. He promptly announced the closure of the Kennedy Center. Official reason: safety concerns due to dilapidation. He would only be willing to renovate if his name was on the facade in return.

Security risks, renovation, alarm bells are ringing. It sounded very similar in the East Wing of the White House. Trump announced his modernization and had it demolished in a flash to make way for the pompous ballroom. His stately architecture with a ballroom and “Arc de Trump” perhaps still lacks an amphitheater. You have to worry about the Kennedy Center.

The AfD in Saxony-Anhalt, which constantly attacks the Bauhaus, explicitly named Donald Trump as a role model in its election program under the heading “Build more beautifully”.