What Trump is doing makes a lot of sense. It's just standard iconoclasm.
Authoritarian regimes routinely destroy historical monuments to erase a past they oppose, promote their own ideology, and control national identity.
this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2025
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I think this issue is somewhat more complicated than what is described by iconoclasm. Trump and the conservative wing of American politics are simultaneously destroying certain aspects of what is usually referred to as American civil religion while still upholding massive amounts of it at the same time. For example its not like they have changed the flag, or that they dont talk about the founding fathers as some godlike figures, etc.
Iconoclasm would imply that the Trumpian cult religion is fully attempting to supplant the longstanding civil religion, but that isnt quite the case. They dont want to stop revering the founding fathers and say we should only revere trump, or say we should get rid of the American flag and replace it with the MAGA flag. The trump cult wouldnt exist without the most rabid adherents to tenets of American civil religion; belief that they are the one true patriots, etc. Progressives and the left wing in general tend to be less attached to such ideas. For example, theyre generally more willing to view the founding fathers as fallible humans rather than as figures above any form of criticism.
Rather than something that meets the definition of iconoclasm, this seems (to me, at least) to show how the MAGA cult is a form of cancerous outgrowth from American civil religion. It stemmed from ACR, and now has become so cancerous that it has started cannibalizing the very thing that spawned it in the first place. But all the while the cult members will go on believing that they are still perfect adherents to the civil religion that inspired them to destroy icons of that civil religion. Its hard to call it basic iconoclasm if one thing is not attempting to outright supersede something else, like in the traditional political example of a new ruler eliminating statues of their predecessor
I had a federal contractor job for four years. Funding got cut and I was laid off in May and I haven't found a job. Yet they have money for this.
They will as soon as the next extortion payment comes through.
"The taxpayers will not be paying for this, I'm so generous that I'll be paying!"
Sues DOJ for $250 million
"I'm so generous I'm not even accepting that money for myself, it's going to pay for the ballroom!"
...
Man, my country burned the White House down and this still hurts to watch.
To be fair, the East Wing wasn't built until almost a century after that. It's practically brand new. Not sure if that makes it better or worse.
It's on top of a bunker for the president
Fellow Canadian here, was desperately trying to find the words for a similar sentiment, and here you are being all sorts of fucking brilliantly erudite.
Nicely done.
I hope someone finally realized that openly doing construction in one of the most secure buildings on Earth is a bad idea and finally added the cost to shield operations.
Buuuuuut then again maybe its just more cost adjustment instead, those independent contractors sure can suddenly surge in cost at any time afterall.
Get ready folks, this shit is going to be a billion dollars
ETA to demolishing the entire White House in 3-2-1...
Mar-a-largo, the countries newest monarch castle.
You joke, but Mar-a-lago was literally donated to the National Park Service in 1973 when Marjorie Post died, with the idea of it being a Winter White House.
It was determined to be too costly to maintain and secure, and returned to the Post Foundation in 1980. And then Trump bought it in 1985.
Anyone wanna bet it never gets finished or is rushed and poorly made.
How much you wanna be the check he wants to write to himself will get bigger now too?
If Schumer had any balls, he’d sue to stop this.
I’m sure he has a very strong letter drafted.
Hey, it's not as if the First Lady is using it.
How much does it cost to fund SNAP for the entire year again? Oh yeah, about 100 million.
I want off this planet.
If jan 6 was ok what is stopping a mob today?