Trump Acknowledges Washington Monuments Are to Himself as Kennedy Center Closure Draws Fresh Criticism
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Sep 16
Trump Acknowledges Washington Monuments Are to Himself as Kennedy Center Closure Draws Fresh Criticism
2 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Sep 16
Summary
Trump said his Washington building push is, at least partly, about himself, telling questioners: “That’s true. Nobody will do it once I’m gone.”
The admission surfaced in a New York Times opinion package centered on backlash from arts figures after the Kennedy Center closed despite a judge’s order.
Letter writers called the center’s treatment a blow to U.S. cultural heritage and cast Trump’s architectural ambitions as self-glorifying rather than civic.
One writer contrasted Trump with George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson, arguing national monuments are usually built later by a “grateful nation” after history judges a president.