Anyone who doesn’t believe Trump’s trashing of our White House and rebuilding it in his own classless, tacky image AND renaming it The Trump House is kidding themselves. For now he intends to have a ‘Trump Ballroom’ and I expect for Christmas he’ll rename the once iconic Rose Garden the Trump patio. He’s got his sights on other things however, and now openly saying the new football stadium to be built on the site of where RFK Memorial Stadium stood be named after him. It’s not just talk either. Trumpty has already been working behind the scenes to get his name on the new stadium
Naturally, Press Secretary Kakistocracy Karoline Leavitt is ‘gushing’ over the possibility, claiming Trump Stadium would be a “beautiful name” according to this article from The Daily Beast. Of course if his diaper failed and a load of excrement slip down his pants leg onto the floor AND he puked next to it she’d say what Trumpty created on the ground was beautiful but I digress. Trump’s ego has never known any bounds so I can’t say I’m surprised that since there was federal involvement in the process of getting a new stadium for the Washington Commanders built Trump would claim it was ALL because of him, so the place should be named after him:
ESPN reported on Saturday that the president is exerting pressure on the Commanders organization and Washington D.C. officials to get his name slapped onto the new arena through “back channel” discussions.
The Commanders own the naming rights to their new stadium and it was believed that they would sell the rights to a corporate sponsor, as most other football teams have. For Trump to get his name on the stadium, he would likely need approval from the District of Columbia Council, which will lease the stadium to the Commanders, and the National Park Service.
This is no mere whim that suddenly popped into Trumpty’s diseased brain that he’ll forget about in a day or two. He really wants this. The linked article cites a source close to the situation who says Trump has plenty of cards to play. The source correctly points out there are various means of pressure Trumpty can exploit to get what he wants:
“He can make it very difficult, through government environmental approvals and other things, to make sure everyone who wants this stadium to be built will join to put his name on it,” said the source.
A White House source agreed, telling the publication, “It’s what the president wants, and it will probably happen.”
Even if you’re not a sports fan you either live in or are aware of pro sports franchises wanting ever newer, fancier stadiums with more plush amenities for the very rich AND that they’ve tended to get their way in getting the public to pay for them via special taxes and fees while contributing little, if anything of their own money. Oh, and keeping all the profits of course! Claims of economic output from these projects creating jobs that offset the cost to taxpayers never seem to meet what was promised. It once once unthinkable for a team to move to a new city/state but it’s become common. The threat makes state and local politician sweat but sometimes the owners get told no.
Anyway, what matters is that the costs are typically borne not by owners but taxpayers and the profits are privatized to the owners. One way owners maximize their profit is to SELL naming rights to a stadium/ballpark. Worse, sometimes the deals expire and all of a sudden a place gets a new corporate name on the place. In this instance the Washington Commanders are sole owners of the naming rights. They also have planned all along to sell said rights for top dollar.
Needless to say, Trump is not only demanding the stadium be name for him, he has no intention of spending a single dollar of his own money to have his name on it. He believes the Commanders and local partners/governments OWE it to him. He wants THEM to pay HIM for the (cough cough) ‘honor’ for having the stadium named for him! That’s where all this could get interesting. Trumpty is already demanding the team abandon the Commanders moniker and return to calling themselves the Redskins. He can make things awfully difficult for them if they don’t do both things.
It speaks to a larger issue. Trump paved over the Rose Garden to create his ugly ass common looking patio. He’s razed the entire historic East Wing to build a monstrosity of a ballroom that will dwarf the actual White House, and it will surely be named the Trump Ballroom. Now this, so it’s fair to speculate on what’s next.
Looking out and seeing the Washington Monument in the distance has to grate on Trump’s ego. It’s easy enough to see him ordering the gently tapered sides made straight up, having a T cross the top and of course plastering giant (fake) gold letters down each side spelling out his name. It will dominate the newly renamed National Mall, and moving west the Lincoln Memorial will get a Trumpian makeover, The reflecting pool with be renamed for him of course and to make sure people know a gaudy gold pillar will be placed in the middle with a rotating top – with the name TRUMP in big fake gold letters. As for that majestic rendering of Lincoln THAT will be jackhammered into bits. It will be replaces by Trumpty sitting on a literal throne like the King has. Naturally it will be renamed the Trump memorial.
He’ll pull similar crap at other major memorials in the city, either renaming (after altering them to his taste) or razing them. He’s already clearly intending to get the Kennedy Center renamed for himself and word is the center’s opera theater is about to be renamed for Melania. So there’s that but there’s so much more he’s got to have at least considered.
He’s got to be mightily offended over the WWII Memorial because we up and beat down Hitler and his Nazi regime. That will likely get razed. As for additions, don’t forget his gaudy Trump Arch, or Arch of Trump or whatever the hell he comes up with. THAT will go across the river in Virginia and he’ll order the armed forces to repel any attempts by Virginia to prevent it from going up – right there in the traffic circle in front of the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery. It wound’s Trump to his core that the people buried there, those who sacrificed all to help us become what we were BT (Before Trump) are revered and HE is not. His arch would be a gigantic ‘F**K You’ to the “suckers and losers” who died in the service of this country.
For all this, I think he’s already dreaming of being able to have the District of Columbia renamed the District of Trump. Mark my words, if not Trump some asshat will suggest it. Trumpty himself could do one of his “Well, people say…” schticks that by golly something ike that SHOULD be considered! You know the old saying wishing people the good fortune of living in ‘interesting times.’ I’ve never really like that sentiment because history is replete with example of ‘interesting’ being awful, tragic events taking place on a major scale.
Now we are living in mad times. We truly are. After eight tumultuous years of Bush 43 we got eight years of ‘No drama Obama’ and would have had the same with Hillary Clinton. Well, we saw how much damage including hundreds of thousands of preventable COVID deaths happened in only four years. So we elected someone normal, who actually knew stuff and how to not only do the job of President but do it well. January 6 seemed to provide the exclamation point on the fact the voters had recognized just how awful Trump was.
Good things happened and a lot of damage was repaired by Biden. If not boring at least things were fairly normal most of the time. But noooooooooo! Voters threw a hissy fit for a variety of reasons with news outlets egging them on and forced Biden out. Even then they wouldn’t give Trump the “old guy” treatment they gave to Biden and look at what we are living with now. In the years after Reagan it became a sort of joke about how Republicans were trying to rename stuff everywhere for him. Now, we have Trump who has no limits being placed on him and I’m convinced he’s just getting started on remaking everything to his tacky-assed tasted and renaming it TRUMP this or that.
I’m sick of “interesting.” I want boring old regular back. I’ll bet most people reading this do too.
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Sorry…..I just can’t see Asshole Field catching on.
*smirk*
Wasn’t that the new name for the Rose Patio?
Well, the Commanders can always change the stadium’s name to something less disgusting (like “Shit Stadium”) after Drumpf is gone.
Of course, there may not be a stadium left by then because the Commanders (in all likelihood) won’t see the stadium exceed 10% of its total capacity as long as it’s “Drumpf Stadium.”