A New York Times columnist on Tuesday pointed out that MAGA will have its expiration date as President Donald Trump‘s desire to destroy or rebrand will ultimately be scrubbed when he’s gone.
Michelle Cottle described in her column how Trump is on a “renaming crusade” from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to his threats to only release federal funding to complete the rail tunnel under the Hudson River in exchange for naming New York’s Penn Station and Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C., after himself. His moves are “aimed not at building a legacy so much as appropriating those of others. He seems to find that approach easier.”
But as Cottle explained, Trump’s power won’t last forever, and neither will his “presidential graffiti.” Like many countries that have removed the names of “discredited authoritarians from the public square,” Americans can expect this to happen someday in the United States.
“As president, the real estate mogul and self-proclaimed builder of great things has turned out to be not much of a builder at all,” Cottle wrote. “He tears stuff down. Occasionally, as with the East Wing of the White House, he destroys something meaningful, with an eye toward replacing it with a bigger, golder version more befitting his imperial tastes. But he seems to lack what it takes to create or even to inspire institutions or monuments built to endure.”
His political legacy — the MAGA movement — will likely not outlast him once he’s gone.
“Trumpism will not last forever,” Cottle wrote. “Elements might endure, but the MAGA movement is at heart a cult of personality unlikely to outlast its singular leader for very long in its existing form. And whenever the fever breaks, America can begin to figure out when and how much of Mr. Trump’s self-honoring to roll back.”
The process after Trump will “probably be slow and steady,” the writer said.
“Removing presidential graffiti promises to be one of the easier repair jobs,” Cottle wrote. “Government agencies, policy programs, democratic norms, the rule of law — Mr. Trump is smearing his grubby fingerprints across so much more than a few edifices. The reconstruction will be long and daunting, especially if we take the opportunity to (with apologies to President Joe Biden) build back better. There are no quick fixes. Pretending otherwise would just lay the groundwork for public disappointment and bitterness.”
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