Editor’s Note: Washington Week With The Atlantic is a partnership between NewsHour Productions, WETA, and The Atlantic airing every Friday on PBS stations nationwide. Check your local listings, watch full episodes here, or listen to the weekly podcast here.
Donald Trump’s efforts to change the architecture of Washington, D.C. have included projects such as repainting the Reflecting Pool, tearing down the East Wing of the White House, and proposing the construction of a triumphal arch. Last night on Washington Week With The Atlantic, panelists joined to discuss what this may reveal about the president’s governing style, and more.
Trump’s ongoing discussions about these projects often focus on interior design and his desire to rebuild structures in his own vision. Trump is “a hobbyist who happens to be president,” Michael Scherer, a staff writer at The Atlantic, argued last night. “He’s getting to do his hobby with public taxpayer dollars to whatever extent he wants.”
The president “conflates national greatness with what he can do, and that’s part of his identity; it’s part of his politic,” Scherer said. D.C. will see “project after project, because it really is the thing that captures his imagination.”
Joining the editor in chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, to discuss this and more: Leigh Ann Caldwell, a chief Washington correspondent at Puck; Stephen Hayes, the editor of The Dispatch; Scherer; Nancy Youssef, a staff writer at The Atlantic.
Watch the full episode here.
The post What Trump’s Efforts to Change D.C. Reveal appeared first on The Atlantic.
