“He needs to be a builder just like the hero of Ayn Rand’s novel, so massive that the skyline is his profile.”
That was a New York Instances editorial from 1985. Then, President-elect Donald Trump was merely an actual property developer, trying to make his mark on a metropolis that was pockmarked with getting old and deserted architectural relics. He had already racked up some successes — and controversies. He resuscitated the lifeless Commodore Resort; he demolished the landmark Fifth Ave. division retailer Bonwit Teller, destroying precious art work within the course of, to erect the gleaming black and gold Trump Tower; and he’d purchased two Atlantic Metropolis on line casino accommodations.
However his most grandiose imaginative and prescient was for a West Facet improvement dubbed “Tv Metropolis,” which the Instances known as his “bid for immortality.”
It will be six big towers spanning 12 blocks alongside the Hudson River the place the outdated rail yards have been, together with the tallest constructing on the earth.
Trump was compelled to considerably scale down his imaginative and prescient, even the title “Trump Metropolis.” What he was left with was six condos referred to as “Trump Place.” His stake within the property would shrink through the years, and finally he was squeezed out totally, however made a deal to maintain his title on a lot of the buildings.
In my early 30s, I lived in a type of Trump buildings for a pair years. In actual fact, once I moved in, Trump despatched me a welcome present, a slicing board with my initials engraved in it.
However after he was elected president in 2016 and I used to be lengthy gone, residents began a petition to take away his title, and by 2019 they’d succeeded.
For greater than twenty years, Trump’s “bid for immortality” have been these six towers, glittering alongside the West Facet Freeway, his title beaming out in stately gold lettering. Now, the one factor you see within the wall of gleaming glass buildings is the reflection of the Hudson River’s sun-kissed chop.
Now, as Trump enters the White Home for a second time, a lot extra highly effective than a mere developer, it’s clear Ayn Rand’s heroic builder nonetheless lingers inside him, needling him, agitating him, distracting him.
This fixation helps clarify what’s in any other case unexplainable — his weird obsession with altering the maps.
Regardless of some very critical and complicated issues looming over our nation — inflation, a border disaster, rising crime, our involvement in a number of wars — Trump’s spent the previous couple weeks main as much as his inauguration publicly musing on a number of preposterous and deeply unserious concepts.
Simply this week he declared he would rename the Gulf of Mexico, a world physique of water that’s been known as that for 400 years, the Gulf of America.
In December he vowed to vary the title of our tallest peak again to Mount McKinley, after former President Barack Obama allowed Alaska lawmakers to vary the title to Denali in 2015, to honor its native peoples.
There’s his ongoing curiosity in Greenland — this week Trump promised he’d “tariff Denmark at a really excessive degree” if it didn’t give us the autonomous territory, and implied Denmark may not also have a rightful declare to the huge land mass. He dispatched his son to scout the situation.
He’s threatening to accumulate or “merge” with Canada, a sovereign nation and — one nonetheless hopes — a detailed ally. He’s posting maps on social media displaying the nation — which he typically mocks because the 51st state — as a part of the U.S., like a blueprint to lure potential builders.
Trump’s additionally threatened to retake the Panama Canal from the Panamanians.
Alarmingly, he’s refused to rule out using navy power to perform these takeovers, saying, “You may need to do one thing.”
It’s onerous to determine whether or not these musings are downright terrifying, absurd, or merely implausible. However one factor is for positive — they weren’t why his supporters voted for him. Merging with Canada, altering the names of mountains and our bodies of water, and buying near-empty land plenty have been atop nobody’s checklist of priorities within the 2024 election.
With far greater considerations on our horizon, it’s utter lunacy, but it surely makes excellent sense if you happen to take a look at it by way of the eyes of the Trump who was preoccupied with remaking the New York skyline, constructing his personal eponymous metropolis, and conserving his title on properties he didn’t even personal anymore.
That Trump isn’t motivated by geopolitical considerations — he’s motivated by ego, insecurity, and a deep gap he can’t fill with a thousand Greenlands or Trump Towers.
You could find it troubling, amusing, or simply unhappy — however Trump, the now two-term president of america, continues to be chasing his bid for immortality.
S.E. Cupp is the host of “S.E. Cupp Unfiltered” on CNN.
