(AFP) – President Donald Trump on Thursday announced plans to add a potential “Trump promenade” to the iconic Lincoln Memorial, in his latest grandiose bid to leave his mark on the US capital. Trump said the walkway would link the huge marble monument, built to commemorate Civil War-era president Abraham Lincoln, to the nearby Potomac River.
“They want to call it the Trump Promenade,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office as he unveiled the project for the first time. “I don’t know if I want to do that, but it’s going to be beautiful.”
Work has only just been completed on Trump’s plan to resurface the Reflecting Pool near the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, with water being pumped in on Thursday. For the second day in a row, the 79-year-old Trump showed off a chart titled “Our Pool is Bigger than Skyscrapers,” comparing the scale of the pool to three famous buildings.
Trump has unleashed a huge public works program in Washington since returning to office last year, refurbishing a series of monuments, knocking down the East Wing of the White House to build a ballroom, and planning a huge triumphal arch. He has even tried to stamp his name on several institutions, including the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
But the billionaire president’s plan to alter the beloved Lincoln Memorial, and potentially rebrand part of it after himself, will be perhaps his furthest reaching change yet. Trump said that under the original plans made in 1911, the main entrance was on the present-day back of the monument, which is now cut off from the river by two multi-lane roads.
“It’s going to take the Lincoln Memorial right down to the Potomac, which it was always scheduled to do,” Trump said. “We have a way of beautifully going over those two roads, the highways.”
However, several of Trump’s plans have hit roadblocks, with time running out before his second and final term ends in just over two and a half years. The reflecting pool project, which has shut down one of Washington’s most popular tourist attractions, has faced scrutiny over its cost and the process by which the contract was awarded.
A US judge then ruled last month that Trump’s name must be removed from the Kennedy Center. The Kennedy Center’s legal counsel has now told staff to strip all uses of Trump’s name from signs, brochures, the website, and other materials, US media reported.
Trump’s ballroom at the White House has also run into trouble. He insists its $400 million cost is funded entirely by donors and himself, but Republicans have dropped a separate proposal for up to $1 billion in Secret Service to fund security measures for the project, including a “drone pad” on the roof.
– Danny KEMP
© 2024 AFP
