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Trump Bulldozes the White House. What Will He Destroy Next?

The East Wing is gone, paid for by corporate donors seeking favors—and it’s a preview of how Trump plans to use power in a second term.

Dan Pfeiffer

Oct 24

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One of the first orders of business of any authoritarian movement is to destroy national symbols and historic landmarks. They need to assert dominance and erase symbols of democracy and freedom. It’s what the Nazis, the Communist Chinese, and the Soviets did. When the Taliban took over Afghanistan, they detonated the 1,500-year-old Buddhas of Bamiyan carved into a cliff.

That’s the context for Trump’s unprecedented, unauthorized destruction of the East Wing of the White House.

Was that a little dramatic? Perhaps.

But I am not unbiased on this issue. The White House is incredibly special to me. I spent almost every waking moment in that building for more than six years. It’s where the most important work I will ever do took place. I met my wife and made lifetime friends in the White House. My wife also worked in the East Wing when she served in the First Lady’s Office.

It was bad enough to have Trump and his goons spoiling the place with corruption, incompetence, and cruelty. Watching Trump gleefully bulldoze the East Wing to construct a corrupt monument to himself is really too much to bear.

Maybe you care about this because you love the White House like I do. Maybe you care about this because you hate Trump. But I am guessing a lot of people don’t care.

Here’s why you should.

1. It Says Something About How Trump Sees His Role

I know it’s just a building—and an old one at that—but symbols matter. If a President can unilaterally destroy a national symbol to build a monument to himself, he is not a President; he is a King...