Lawrence Vale, urban planner: “In the United States, many see Trump’s remodeling of Washington as a metaphor for his policies”

Lawrence Vale is professor of planning and urban design at the School of Architecture and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA. He opened the symposium “Architecture and National Identity”, organized by the Society of Architectural Historians, on March 21 and 22, in Washington.

Garden of Heroes, monumental triumphal arch, huge ballroom at the White House, giant banners bearing his image on public buildings… Donald Trump wants to leave his mark on Washington, the American federal capital. Are there other examples like this in American history?

What Donald Trump seeks to do is unprecedented, not in the scale of the overhaul of Washington, but in the variety of places in which he intervenes. Much has been made of the gilding of the White House offices, the spectacular destruction of the East Wing and the transformation of the Rose Garden into a terrace. But, outside, Lafayette Square is today surrounded by construction barriers, although it is a traditional place of protests and gatherings. Since the installation of security barriers in 2025, it has been almost impossible to get near the White House. The “people’s house” [People’s House] isolated herself from the people.

Never had a president put his name or image on federal buildings while still in office. However, this is the case today, particularly at the ministries of labor and justice, where huge banners bearing the image of Trump have been displayed. Add his name to a federal building, as he did with the Kennedy Center [principal centre culturel de Washington]typically falls under the prerogatives of Congress, which wanted to build a memorial to John F. Kennedy. It would be as if Georges Pompidou had himself decided to rename Beaubourg “Pompidou center” during his lifetime, or if the current president were to rename it “Macron-Pompidou center”. Instead of checks and balances, this system of checks and balances provided for by the Constitution, we now have ad hoc councils composed of people loyal to the president, who validate his decisions.

You have 81.37% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.