If proof had been wanted that Donald Trump’s cult of persona has by no means been stronger, it comes within the ingenious methods Republican members of Congress have spent his first month in workplace making an attempt to lionise him. Welcome to the sycophancy stakes.
On 23 January the congressman Addison McDowell of North Carolina launched laws to rename Washington Dulles worldwide airport as Donald J Trump worldwide airport.
“We’ve entered the golden age of America largely because of President Trump’s management,” McDowell stated. Alluding to Ronald Reagan Washington Nationwide airport, he added: “It is just proper that the 2 airports servicing our nation’s capital are duly honored and revered by two of the perfect presidents to have the honour of serving our nice nation.”
To not be outdone, on the identical day the Tennessee congressman Andy Ogles proposed a Home of Representatives joint decision to amend the structure so {that a} president can serve as much as three phrases – supplied that they didn’t serve two consecutive phrases earlier than working for a 3rd.
This might proceed to bar Invoice Clinton, George W Bush and Barack Obama from working once more however allow Trump, elected in 2016 and 2024, to hunt a 3rd time period in 2028.
Ogles defined: “He has confirmed himself to be the one determine in fashionable historical past able to reversing our nation’s decay and restoring America to greatness, and he should be given the time crucial to perform that purpose.”
On 28 January Anna Paulina Luna, a congresswoman from Florida, put ahead laws to rearrange the carving of Trump’s face on the Mount Rushmore nationwide memorial in South Dakota. Such a transfer would put him alongside the previous presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.
Luna stated: “President Trump’s daring management and steadfast dedication to America’s greatness have cemented his place in historical past. Mount Rushmore, a timeless image of our nation’s freedom and power, deserves to replicate his towering legacy – a legacy additional solidified by the highly effective begin to his second time period.”
On 14 February the New York congresswoman Claudia Tenney launched laws to formally designate 14 June as a federal vacation to commemorate Trump’s birthday, together with the date in 1777 when the US authorized the design for its first nationwide flag. The vacation can be often known as “Trump’s Birthday and Flag Day”.
Tenney defined: “Simply as George Washington’s birthday is codified as a federal vacation, this invoice will add Trump’s birthday to this checklist, recognizing him because the founding father of America’s Golden Age. Moreover, as our nation prepares to rejoice its 250th anniversary, we must always create a brand new federal vacation honoring the American flag and all that it represents.”
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It’s removed from sure that any of the payments will cross. Over the past Congress, a proposal to rename Dulles, which is presently named after John Foster Dulles, an influential secretary of state throughout the chilly warfare, was referred to the Home committee on transportation and infrastructure however failed to achieve traction. Many conservatives can be reluctant to tamper with an American icon comparable to Mount Rushmore, which took 14 years to carve and was accomplished in 1941.
Ogles’s stunt faces the largest impediment of all. A constitutional modification should obtain a two-thirds majority vote in each the Home and Senate. If that’s achieved, three quarters of the states – 38 – should ratify the modification for it to turn out to be a part of the structure.
Nonetheless, the unsubtle workouts in ring-kissing and genuflection show that, buoyed by election success, Trump’s management over the Republican get together is now all however absolute. From Elon Musk’s so-called “division of presidency effectivity” to the upending of US coverage on Ukraine, few Republicans are prepared to talk out in opposition to the president-cum-monarch.
“We’ve gone from ‘Make America Nice Once more’ to make ‘America Nice Britain Once more’,” stated Kurt Bardella, a Democratic strategist and former Republican congressional aide. “You may as nicely have a picture of Donald Trump observing a portrait of King George after which turning round and placing a crown on his head, a gown round his swimsuit and a sceptre in his hand.”
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