Imagining a Donald J. Trump Preidential Library
We ask an esteemed and partisan cohort of voters to imagine what a Donald J. Trump presidential library might look like. What follows is a sample of those responses. Names have been withheld — save one.
It will be online and will include tweets and executive orders. There is no other writing. (Los Angeles marriage and family counselor.)
Lots of shelves for fake news, no history books, comic books, a small shelf for women in the news. A huge TV with FOX news only. (New York clinical psychologist)
The library will feature a Fox newsroom with a continuous screening of laudatory footage from hundreds of so-called newscasts. (Los Angeles musical theater impresario)
It definitely won’t be a library in any recognizable sense. It will have rows of gold video monitors on a huge wall depicting all his many rallies. On another wall, a giant Trump head speaking his favorite lines, e.g. ‘Lock her up.’ Across from that will be buttons to push bringing up Trumpian triumphs. e.g. how much money he earned while president. It will also have gold presidential coins, Ivanka perfume and merchandise picturing himself. (Connecticut artist)
It will be the Donald J. Trump Presidential Victory & Greatest Gift Shop Ever located on the ground floor of Trump Tower. Admission, $40. And he will charge rent to the people who run it. (retired Los Angeles TV executive)
There will be photos of his three marriages, five children, bone spurs, his tenure as a Queens slum landlord, footage from Celebrity Apprentice, pictures he took while wandering backstage at Miss Teen America Pageant, doctored photos of his inauguration crowd size and a special exhibit of all his presidential tweets. (international bridge player)
It will offer the Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin ‘No Collusion’ Center for the Purported Study of Election Tampering.
A watering hole called The Liar’s Club that serves cheeseburgers, KFC and cokes — but no alcohol.
A Fake News Exhibit sponsored by Fox News.
A giant wall wall runs throughout the facility, erected thanks to a generous grant from the South of the Border Foundation.
A Melania Trump Misery Encounter challenges guests to make an animatronic First Lady robot smile.
A Hillary Clinton Collection room built purposely crooked that allows visitors to delete and then rescue a cache of private emails.
All attendees will have the option of recusing themselves upon entering.
(Los Angeles writer, Ray Richmond)
AUDIOBOOK RECOMMENDATION — In keeping with today’s politically noxious climate, it helps to ingest Prof. Charles Mathewes Great Courses lecture on ‘Why Evil Exists.’ He reminds us of Plato’s description of the classic authoritarian leader. The ruler has no intellectual grip on the world, he says. The ruler’s response to reality is really a matter of irritable, competitive reactions to not fully understood stimuli.
Sound familiar?
