Trump’s absurd DC virtual spectacle

For nearly eight years, while living in Washington, D.C., I often did a thought experiment in my mind: Which presidential candidate would Americans vote for if they knew, as I and my D.C. colleagues did, that the winning candidate would move into their proverbial backyard? More than ninety-three percent of the district’s voters voted against Donald Trump in the 2024 election, only to find themselves living in a city remade in Trump’s image.

Last August, DC provided an initial testing ground for deploying the National Guard in cities. I saw the soldiers chasing delivery drivers down 18th Street, the strip of bars and restaurants that entertain the city’s crowd of serious twenty-somethings, then, eight months later, aimlessly patrolling in groups of four past grocery stores and in public parks in the middle of quiet afternoons. Huge banners with Trump’s face were displayed at the headquarters of the Department of Justice, the Department of Labor and the Department of Agriculture. In December, Trump-installed board members voted to rename the Kennedy Center Trump-Kennedy Center and had its new name emblazoned on the facade. Fences were erected not only in front of the White House but also around the parks; in March, the grass at Logan Circle was fenced off with chain link and opaque mesh, preventing pedestrians from crossing the park, and plans were announced to close the top of Meridian Hill Park, a popular gathering place, for most of the summer. Trump also demolished the East Wing of the White House, of course, to make way for a vast ballroom. In case the architectural iconoclasm wasn’t enough to offend, some of the rubble from the demolished building was dumped on the grounds of the East Potomac Golf Links. For many locals, these incursions into places of daily life represented a kind of siege against which they had little recourse.

Last April, my wife and I moved to New York for my wife’s job. There are a lot of things I miss about Washington: the rugged woods of Rock Creek Park, the frankly absurd number of dogs out for walks, the relative ease of making a restaurant reservation. But I continued to be bombarded by the Trump version of the city, this time in images on the Internet, as the administration turns DC’s transformation into visual propaganda. The latest set of photos shows an Ultimate Fighting Championship arena erected in front of the White House, with a lighting system adorned with stars and stripes that resembles a roller coaster frame. The card is set for June 14, in honor of the two hundred and fiftieth birthday of the United States and Trump’s eightieth birthday. The juxtaposition of a rigid government structure and a garish entertainment contraption was so ridiculous that some social media commentators assumed it was a fake. The Pentagon, redoubling its efforts, is reportedly recruiting troops to attend the event – ​​provided they pay their own way and look military enough for Pete Hegseth, meeting height and weight requirements. With its combination of teenage exuberance and politicized violence, the White House x UFC activation is just as rotten as the administration intercutting drone strikes in Iran with video game footage.

During his second term, in particular, Trump excelled at using government buildings as personal decor. In 2025, during his short-lived Elon Musk era, there was a Tesla parked in front of the White House, announcing his newfound comfort with technology. As the second term progressed, the theatrical symbols of his rule became more ambitious, more personal. Trump had the lawn in the center of the Rose Garden paved and lit, so that it now resembles the patio of an imaginary Pain Quotidien. The bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is painted in the official Old Glory blue of the American flag, after a German friend of Trump’s complained that its longtime shade of gray was “disgusting”; the president said he aspired to make it look more like a “very sophisticated swimming pool,” although early photos of the transformation suggest a streaky mess. The golden filigree that began to spread across the walls of the Oval Office moved toward the exterior of the building; now there is a gold cursive sign on the outer door leading to the colonnade, like an obnoxious monogram. Renderings of the ballroom that Trump hopes will replace the East Wing show a cavernous, gilded, faux-historic expanse that dwarfs the real historic structures that surround it. The latest addition to the plans is a “DronePort” which Trump posted renderings of on Truth Social, featuring autonomous aircraft and soldiers stationed on the roof.

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