{"id":511056,"date":"2026-04-03T16:41:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T16:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/511056\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T16:41:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T16:41:08","slug":"vegas-hotel-meets-aerospace-bling-trumps-presidential-library-plan-is-a-gaudy-self-glorifying-monstrosity-architecture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/511056\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Vegas hotel meets aerospace bling\u2019: Trump\u2019s presidential library plan is a gaudy, self-glorifying monstrosity | Architecture"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the unveiling of the prospective Trump presidential library<\/a>, which, in its timing and substance looked for all the world like an April fool, the old adage that you can\u2019t gild a turd but you can roll it in glitter has become bleakly redundant. It turns out that you can most definitely gild a turd.<\/p>\n

At the heart of the proposed 47-storey skyscraper on Miami\u2019s waterfront \u2013 47 floors for the 47th President \u2013 is a giant golden statue of Trump giving off dictator-for-life vibes, his gilded fist triumphantly raised. Such an aureate monstrosity would not look out of place in Pyongyang or Ashgabat, though Turkmenistan\u2019s former president Saparmurat Niyazov<\/a> \u2013 another despot with a suspiciously luxuriant coiffure \u2013 went one better and had his $12m gold statue installed on a rotating pedestal so it would always face the sun.<\/p>\n

double quotation mark\u2018I don\u2019t believe in building libraries or museums,\u2019 Trump told reporters. \u2018It\u2019s going to be most likely a hotel\u2019<\/p>\n

The unveiling coincided with Florida\u2019s Republican governor Ron DeSantis renaming<\/a> Palm Beach international airport, near Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago bolt-hole, as the President Donald J Trump international airport. After a sticky month in the Strait of Hormuz and the recent No Kings protests<\/a>, not to mention plummeting approval ratings, Trump clearly felt the need for some self-glorifying pushback.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis landmark will stand as a lasting testament to an amazing man, an amazing developer, and the greatest president our nation has ever known,\u201d Eric Trump, the president\u2019s son and the co-chair of the non-profit foundation seeking donations to build the library, gushed on social media.<\/p>\n

Dictator-for-life vibes \u2026 Trump\u2019s proposed golden effigy. Illustration: CBS12 News WPEC\/You Tube<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe in building libraries or museums,\u201d Donald Trump<\/a> told reporters. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be most likely a hotel.\u201d Given that Trump\u2019s relationship with architecture was shaped by his career as an \u201camazing\u201d developer, this tilt is hardly surprising. Eric Trump\u2019s video rendering of the \u201clibrary\u201d on social media showed a mirrored glass prosthesis with \u201cTRUMP\u201d emblazoned on it, populated by an AI-generated scrum of gussied-up Maga cocktail quaffers wafting around roof gardens and perusing a replica of the Trumpian Oval Office.<\/p>\n

Resembling a Vegas hotel themed as a bling aerospace museum, a soaring lobby features gold escalators, jet fighters and the Qatari-donated \u201cflying palace\u201d of Air Force One, like a preposterous ship-in-a-bottle. Books are nowhere to be seen. It\u2019s basically Trump in architectural form: the deal-doing warrior and man with the Midas touch, presided over by his gleaming, gloating, engorged effigy.<\/p>\n

A mirrored glass prosthesis \u2026 the building will have 47 storeys to represent the 47th President. Illustration: CBS12 News WPEC\/You Tube<\/p>\n

Designed by the Miami-based firm Bermello Ajamil, which specialises in luxury condominiums, the building appears loosely modelled on New York\u2019s post-9\/11 Freedom Tower. Yet already there are whiffs of shenanigans. The tract of waterfront land on which it will sit was gifted to Trump\u2019s library foundation by Miami Dade College in a controversial transfer last year. A judge dismissed a complaint challenging the gift on the basis that the college\u2019s board didn\u2019t give sufficient notice for public discussion of the transfer. The site is valued at more than $67m.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not really a presidential library,\u201d argued Thomas Kennedy, former political director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition on X. \u201cIt\u2019s a real estate hustle, with land gifted at taxpayer expense, so they can build a hotel complex.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inaugurated by Franklin D Roosevelt, who recognised the importance of passing on papers and memorabilia from his administration to the nation, the presidential library is a uniquely American conceit. Suffused with the warm glow of philanthropy, it is a chance to set-dress your reputation and how you want history to judge you once you\u2019ve finally exited the Oval Office.<\/p>\n

Prime location \u2026 the site was gifted to Trump\u2019s library foundation by Miami Dade College. Illustration: CBS12 News WPEC\/You Tube<\/p>\n

Constituting an awkward hybrid of archive, museum and theme park, the presidential library is a kind of living mausoleum (and sometimes an actual mausoleum) dedicated to a single political personage. Private funding must be sought for construction, but once built, they are maintained by the federal government. From relatively modest beginnings \u2013 Roosevelt\u2019s is a faux Dutch colonial manor house complete with a \u201cNew Deal\u201d gift shop \u2013 they have burgeoned in scale and ambition, but invariably include a period replica of the Oval Office.<\/p>\n

Architectural tastes vary considerably. Jackie Kennedy commissioned the Chinese-American architect IM Pei, who famously designed the pyramid at the Louvre, to devise a conspicuously modernist confection of concrete and smoked glass to house the JFK library, while Ronald Reagan favoured Spanish Mission style, with a slab of the Berlin Wall in the library grounds. Among the artefacts in George W Bush\u2019s sprawling complex of ponderous pastiche classicism is Saddam Hussein\u2019s pistol, seized during his capture in 2003. Doubtless Trump will be mulling over which spoils of war he might want to preserve for posterity.<\/p>\n

No coincidence \u2026 the Obama presidential library in Chicago opens in June. Photograph: Obama Presidential Library<\/p>\n

As powerful men compete for their legacies, a degree of rivalry is inevitable, but given Trump\u2019s sociopathic narcissism, the idea that he might be outshone by his predecessors is insupportable. It\u2019s probably no coincidence that his Miami unveiling came in the same month as confirmation of the formal opening in June \u2013 specifically Juneteenth, the public holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the US \u2013 of Barack Obama\u2019s presidential library, designed by the New York-based partnership of Tod Williams and Billie Tsien. Social media has witnessed a vituperative \u201cbattle of the styles\u201d, with Obama\u2019s library described as a \u201cMarxist Tatooine sand crawler abomination\u201d.<\/p>\n

Set in Chicago\u2019s languishing South Side, the $850m Obama Presidential Center has not been without its problems of its own. Escalating budgets and appropriation of public parkland have taken the gloss off the project, as have accusations that far from being a regenerative catalyst for an economically depressed area, it will merely impel gentrification and displace long time South Side residents.<\/p>\n

Plans on hold? \u2026 Trump showing off renderings of his proposed ballroom project in 2025. Photograph: The Washington Post\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

In other news, Trump\u2019s pet project of building a White House ballroom-cum-bunker on the ruins of the demolished East Wing has come to a shuddering stop for now<\/a>, after a federal judge halted construction because congressional approval for the redevelopment had not been granted. Trump claimed the National Trust for Historic Preservation\u2019s lawsuit<\/a> holding his scheme to account was unwarranted, ranting against a \u201cradical left group of lunatics\u201d. But US district judge Richard Leon affirmed that \u201cthe president of the United States is the steward of the White House for future generations of first families. He is not, however, the owner.\u201d Two days later, Washington\u2019s planning authorities gave the go-ahead<\/a>, and the justice department has appealed the judge\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n

But if bullying and browbeating don\u2019t work, Trump has a backup plan: an exact replica of the ballroom is destined to feature in his library tower, amplifying the nightmarish sense of fantasy that has come to balefully characterise every aspect of his presidency. The turd gilding is set to continue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the unveiling of the prospective Trump presidential library, which, in its timing and substance looked for all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-511056","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-design","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}