Trump and the power of Mar-a-Lago
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Who is currently in charge of the United States? Kamala Harris? President Joe Biden on paper. Or is it actually President-elect Donald Trump?Many signs point to the latter, especially the undeniable fact that the center of American political power has already moved 1,000 miles south from the grand neoclassical designs of the White House and the Capitol.-Mar-a – XIV sanctuary of Lago.
When Marjorie Merriweather Post, the breakfast cereal heiress who ordered the Florida resort a century ago, left Mar-a-Lago to the federal government after her death in 1973, the administration at the time decided it wasn’t worth the trouble or expense. The property was returned to Post Foundation, which sold it to Trump in 1985. He turned it into a private members’ club in 1994 the first term of office. And despite the fact that he’s not yet 47, the description seems more apt now than ever.
In recent weeks, a steady stream of billionaires, politicians and other forms of power brokers and sycophants have passed through the Palm Beach Palace. Elon Musk seems to have set up camp there. Techno-romantic Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen says he’s as altruistic as he is, spending half his time at the club “to help”. Reform UK Party Leader Nigel Farage and Treasurer Nick Candy were present pictured there grinning alongside Musk.
And why wouldn’t they? i have been Inside Mar-a-Lago several times and, contrary to popular belief, it is in very good taste.Trump is praised by members and locals for maintaining the original properties. One sees no ketchup drips from the walls. The only signs that you’re on his property and not some other glitzy private club are the TRUMP WI-FI network. TRUMP’s emblem (changed from INTEGRITAS when he took office) on everything from napkins to doormats; framed magazine covers on the walls of the entry hall; and, yes, that quite a flattering portrait at the bar.
Trump instinctively understands what other politicians struggle to wrap their heads around, including power how things look And the beautiful private members’ club on pristine, sun-drenched, palm-dotted grounds is an inviting invitation even to the already very wealthy (and even if the menu and music selection haven’t changed in nearly two decades, members tell me).
He understands that having a glitzy backdrop for announcements and interviews makes him look presidential even when he’s not in power. Indeed, you only have to look at Manhattan’s soaring Trump Tower, with its 34-inch brass capital above the entrance, to see how. former real estate developer uses architecture as propaganda.
This idea came to me while watching the screening of the film stardust, what a wonderful a new documentary About postmodernist architectural power couple Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown (I was in a discussion at the Barbican with the directors, one of whom is the son of Venturi and Scott Brown). ancient Greek temples with billboards in Las Vegas. “Would you rather sell religion or soap? I’d go buy some soap.”
It’s interesting to wonder what exactly the American right has been trying to sell in its crusade against modern architecture for the past few years.Earlier this year, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson went a Roger Scruton-esq rant about how “postmodern” architecture is “designed to demoralize and . . . destroy your spirit.’
And in 2020, Trump, a man who made his fortune building tower blocks, signed executive order ordering that all new federal buildings be “beautiful.” The order (later rescinded by Biden) also condemned the “incongruous mix of classical and modernist design” seen in many federal buildings; an odd complaint, perhaps, from a man who has Versailles style apartment in a skyscraper penthouse, but then Trump never worry too much about consistency.
It boils down to the idea that traditional conservative values are the only thing that can save America, and nostalgia for a country that no longer exists buildings should be beautifulAlthough I don’t believe that Trump’s promised “Golden Age” will come to pass, with his gilded White House, he can pretend to the influencers and oligarchs who are greedily circling him that it can , it has already happened.
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