Donald Trump – who within mere months of his second term shoveled more than $1 billion of taxpayer money into initiatives specifically designed to inflate his personality cult and make him feel better about himself – lives in palpable fear of what several of his administration officials are calling the possible coming flood of “de-Trumpification.” The “de-Trumpification” that keeps the U.S. president up at night isn’t the kind geared toward reversing the democratic backsliding that he and his Republican Party have unleashed.
No, the “de-Trumpification” that the former reality-TV star is obsessed with is the kind that would involve bulldozing his pet structural projects, removing his likeness from money, and erasing the words “Donald J. Trump” from some big, beautiful buildings once he’s out of power, according to sources close to the president.
Two Trump advisers and three U.S. government officials tell Zeteo that Trump devotes an inordinate amount of his time not just to decorating, making plays for his Washington, DC, arch and White House ballroom and other expensive tributes to himself, and getting his face, name, and personal touch plastered on as many buildings, pieces of currency, and monuments as he can possibly get away with; the American ruler also spends what one administration official describes as “a ton” of time worrying about – and using considerable government resources to preempt – future efforts by Democrats to tear down his presidential legacy of architecture and idolatry.