By any fair measure, Donald Trump has reason to be pleased with the success of his self-glorification crusade. As things stand, the president’s name and/or face now graces a bridge in Tennessee, an airport in Florida, U.S. currency, a massive 3-inch commemorative gold coin, the Institute of Peace, Trump-branded passports and giant fascistic banners currently covering the front of several federal buildings.
And did I mention “Trump Gold Cards,” “Trump Accounts,” “TrumpRx,” TrumpIRA.gov and National Park Service passes? Because the Republican’s name and/or face has been added to them, too, among other things.
Evidently, however, it’s not enough. The Associated Press reported:
The Republican administration this week urged leading U.S. senators to rename Penn Station as it undertakes a projected $8 billion redesign of the dreary, underground Manhattan transit hub that also happens to be the busiest in the western hemisphere.
But the U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, in a Wednesday letter seeking congressional funding approval for the rehab and other major transportation priorities, stopped short of saying what the station’s moniker should be changed to.
It’s true that the administration hasn’t explicitly directed policymakers to rename Penn Station after Trump. It’s also true that the DOT secretary has been unsubtle about the endgame.
“I imagine you’re asking, ‘Is this going to be Trump Station?’” Duffy said last summer as officials sought bids for the project’s master developer. “I think that has a nice ring to it.”
If this sounds at all familiar, it’s because the president has been personally involved in the effort, too.
In February, after Trump took steps to block federal funding for the Gateway tunnel construction, MaddowBlog confirmed that the president came up with an idea for a transaction: He told Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer that he’d restore the money for the infrastructure project if Democrats agreed to rename Dulles International Airport and New York’s Penn Station after him.
The Republican’s pitch was, for all intents and purposes, an attempt at extortion: If Democrats wanted to save a critical infrastructure project and prevent job losses, they had to indulge Trump’s obsession with self-glorification.
Soon after, a reporter asked the president to confirm the story. He replied that, in his version of events, “Chuck Schumer suggested that to me about changing the name. … It was suggested to me by numerous people — unions, Democrats, Republicans, a lot of people suggested.”
That is, Trump would have us believe that the Democratic Senate leader, among others, approached him with the idea of renaming an airport and one of the nation’s most storied train stations after a president he vehemently opposes.
Schumer wasted little time in responding to this absurdity, calling the claim an “absolute lie.” A few days later, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt effectively said the Democratic senator was correct, confirming that it was Trump who floated the idea, not the longtime New York lawmaker.
A week later, however, Trump contradicted his own press secretary and said that “certain” unnamed people brought it up, all while saying he now considers the story (that his own White House confirmed) to be “fake news.”
Five months later, the Trump administration urged senators to rename Penn Station. Watch this space.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
The post Team Trump’s efforts to rename Penn Station after the president reach a new level appeared first on MS NOW.
