We live in a modern world that has clear directives for how structures must be built. Architects, engineers and those who erect homes and skyscrapers have to adhere to safety measures with everything they erect. While such regulations can be annoying or even daunting they are designed to insure that homes and buildings will be as safe as possible for the people who live and work inside them.
Donald Trump took the reins of his father’s real estate business as a young man and overtime expended the reach of the family business. His efforts were not always as successful as he had hoped. There were projects that he skimped on by using low end paint and then holding the painters responsible for results that did not satisfy him. He created a for profit college that left students in debt and without bankable skills. He even managed to run a casino into bankruptcy.
Now Trump is redesigning the White House and its grounds along with attempting to erect monuments and update the reflection pond that sits between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. He has even taken over the Kennedy Center and claims that it is so rundown that it might need to be demolished.
What we have witnessed is the same kind of bumbling that marked many of his business ventures and led to multiple bankruptcies during his lifetime. He exudes great confidence in himself as though he is a master planner who knows how to get things designed and built properly without the interference of experts or even legal codes.
His brashness has resulted in one disaster after another. He pushed an inexperienced company to redo the reflecting pool as though it was a swimming pool and it took little time before the new liner was peeling from the bottom and floating on the surface. The Oval Office is filled with so much gilt that it looks more like someone’s idea of a cheap version bordello than the working office of our chief executive. The once lovely grounds of the White House are torn up and under construction that was never necessary and that Trump undertook without permission as though he owned the White House.
One of the biggest boondoggles has been the destruction of the East Wing of the White House in order to build a huge ballroom that will be totally out of proportion to the rest of the structure. On top of that there is little need for such an edifice. To convince people of its importance Trump now claims that it will insure the security of future presidents. He intends to turn it into a kind of fortress with a bunker and drones and other so-called protective additions.
The latest report is that the people in charge of the construction of the ballroom insist that the design that Trump wants will not align with building codes. They worry that the location of the kitchen has the potential of causing e a catastrophic fire. Trump has brushed off the critiques by announcing, “I am the code!”
If ever there were a single statement that sums up Trump’s authoritarian manner of ruling our nation it is in those four words. They represent the sum total of what he has been doing in his second administration. He operates as though only he may make decisions because he believes that he knows better than anyone else what to do when it comes to any issue. By surrounding himself with loyal followers he gives himself the audacious green light to do whatever he wishes without any pushback.
To say that giving one person so much power is dangerous is an understatement but even worse is the fact that so little has been done to stop him from ignoring laws and traditions and even building codes. The balance of powers as described in the Constitution were designed to prevent any of the three parts of government from becoming the only voice. It’s purpose was to insure that nobody had the supreme power to become “the code.”
Most of us can’t even put-up a fence or build something on our property without following the laws that have been created over time to protect our neighbors and the environment. We follow the guidelines because we understand the reasons behind them. What is demanded of us should also be demanded of our president. Congress and the many agencies in Washington D.C. should have a voice in what happens to the structures that might be torn down or built. Never should it be the serendipity of a single person, even if the person is the president of the United States.
Donald Trump is not the code. The Constitution and the laws are the code and we the people should be unafraid to demand that he adhere to those rules just as we all must do.
