From "'He’s a Maximalist': Inside Trump’s Gilded Oval Office/The New York Times recreated the president’s office in 3-D, using hundreds of photos taken in October" (NYT)(gift link, for all the photos
3. The "maximalist" characterization comes from Karoline Leavitt: "Why all the gold? 'He’s a maximalist,' Ms. Leavitt said, citing Mr. Trump’s background in real estate and hospitality. 'So he loves showing people who come in, the renovations, his office, his gift shop.'"
IN THE YEARS AFTER ADAMS LOST HIS BID TO BE REELECTED president, the slave states and their allies had controlled the White House, as they did the Congress and the Supreme Court.... Finally, in 1840, the Whigs had broken through, in the person not of Clay, the perennial candidate, but of William Henry Harrison. Adams was inclined to dismiss Harrison as a genial buffoon, an 'Indian fighter' like Jackson who had been puffed up into presidential material by the popular fancy for war heroes....
Then, on April 4, one month after taking the oath of office, Harrison died of pneumonia caused by a cold he had contracted at his inaugural. He was succeeded by John Tyler [who]... had been included as vice president in order to shore up party support in the slave states.
6. And here's the part that I clipped out and texted to Meade and to my son Chris (who reads bios of Presidents and had sent me this book):
It had never crossed anyone’s mind that he would exercise power of any sort; no president had ever died in office. No one even knew how to address the successor; the Constitution was unclear on whether the vice president would succeed to the presidency or merely assume its functions. Adams was outraged that Tyler considered himself the president and insisted on being addressed as such.
I had never seen that idea before, the notion that when a President dies, the VP does not become the President. How dare Tyler expect to be called Mr. President!
7. But back to the present day and to Trump with that picture of William Henry Harrison hanging alongside all the far greater Presidents. Trump keeps Harrison on the wall as a memento mori. We know that because he talks about it to people. He "has ruminated about the fate of Mr. Harrison" aloud about the President who's known for dropping dead. We tend not to think of Trump as a person given to rumination — about anything, certainly not death.
8. Now, looking at those pictures of the Oval Office, maximally ornamented in gold, I think perhaps he sees the place as something like a tomb. Perhaps he envisions a chamber in the soon-to-come Trump library that looks something like this:
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46 comments:
Maximalism is just hoarding.
John Adams had a problem with titles, too. He outraged the Senate by taking up time with how President Washington should be addressed. His Excellency?
Tyler was nicknamed "His Accidency." He was at heart a Democrat who broke with the party over local squabbles in Virginia so when he took office as president he opposed the whole program of the Whig party that had elected him. Needless to say he wasn't the candidate of either party in the next election.
The scroll work atop Bonaparte’s sarcophagus does remind of DJT’s famous hairstyle.
Trump respects the office.
Democrats use the office to stuff their pockets..
Tippiecanoe and Tyler too
Not really a fan of the 2nd Adams. He turned into a anti-slavery, anti-southern crank. If he hated it so much, he should have campainged for New England to leave the Union. Problem solved - and no civil war.
Ugh.
That monster Napoleon should have met his end on the way *to* Helena and his body dumped at sea.
Never thought it possible, but there's a very good chance GLD could be $10k/oz by 2030. From Oval to "Oro" Office, that'll be one expensive room...a Ft. Knox on the Potomac.
Somewhat related since there's a photo of Les Invalides, the Napoleonic War exhibit there is phenomenal. Worth a trip on its own. Seeing this in person was a special treat because it was under restoration for what seemed like years.
Trump was almost killed twice by the violent leftist democrat apparatchik. Few others can claim the right to ruminations of death than he.
It is refreshing to see a President wax philosophic and contemplative of those who have occupied the office prior. Clinton kept babbling (and usually lied) about how we was "the first" of everything in the White house, which he viewed nothing more than his and his wife's personal grift machine.
Obama was only concerned with his own self-absorbed cult of personality and his demanded apotheosis.
There's a similar chamber in a building overlooking the Hudson River. I'd assume that at some point, growing up in NYC, young Trump saw it.
I'm taken by the idea of being buried in a library, or perhaps a museum.
The grave need not be "a fine and private place."
Amazing that the NYT does not mention the most prominent portrait in the Oval Office - President Ronald Reagan. Almost all of the major Cabinet Secretary swearings-in have been conducted under that portrait and it appears in many photos. Warms my Reagan fan-girl heart bigly.
Trump is a human being. I'm always amused when people are shocked when they dicover one of his human traits.
RCOCEAN II said...
Tippiecanoe and Tyler too
"What does that mean? We remember the slogan but not the war." -Conrad Brean
(Or maybe Stanley Motss?)
John Henry
If Trump ever starts having dreams of Bonarparte's sarcophagus, he should be careful what he wishes for. Napoleon's body had a heck of a 40-year journey between death and final interment, including the theft of his dead penis.
His ruminations on US History is what brought us MAGA. And hopefully will keep us here for a bit.
Napoleon's room is surprisingly small; OTOH his hapless older brother Joseph has one too . . .
Golf is the store of value, not gold.
I like the flags of all of the services with the campaign streamers behind the Resolute Desk. Nice touch.
"Tippiecanoe and Tyler too"
I wonder what Old Kinderhook ("MVB") would've thought of "OK" becoming a gesture, and that gesture becoming secret code for "nazi-racist-fascist pig".
Donald John Trump, Maximalist.
This one term (2024 to 2028) will be more eventful than our 1 term prior most eventful president, John Tyler.
Curious that Kirk Parker pays the Emperor of the French the honor refused him by Hudson Lowe, that stupid man who knew ”nothing at all of the world, and like all men who knew nothing of the world was suspicious and jealous.”
Correction - This term is 2025 to 2028.
I first ran across the ide that the VP was only acting president in the event of death in the book 1865 about the immediate aftermath of the War Between the States.
The question had not been resolved with Tyler and there was quite some discussion about whether Johnson was really president and had full presidential powers.
The problem comes with the wording in Article 2, Section 1:
In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may by law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.
The language is unclear. Tyler argued that it made him president and that is how it was taken, but always with some doubts, until the 25th Amendment.
It was still in a bit of doubt even when Truman became prez in 45. So much so that when the 22nd Amendment was written it included the phrase any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President
It was still in doubt, though not much, when LBJ became (acting?) president. It was finally cleared up, once and for all in the 25th Amendment, in the very first section:
Section 1
In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.
John Henry
bold off
"Amazing that the NYT does not mention the most prominent portrait in the Oval Office - President Ronald Reagan...."
It is mentioned prominently, just not in the part I quoted.
Napoleon's great nephew, Charles Bonaparte, was Theodore Roosevelt's Attorney General. Also founded, as a political police, the FBI (as the Bureau of Investigation)
John Henry
Tyler certainly did the right thing in setting the precedent that a VP becomes the actual president when the president kicks the bucket. Jane Swift became ACTING governor of Massachusetts due to a resignation. I think it hurt her a surprisingly great deal to be referred to as merely "acting." In fact, it was IMO a significant factor in enabling Mitt Romney to swoop in and displace her as the GOP nominee without his seeming unduly ruthless.
"We tend not to think of Trump as a person given to rumination — about anything, certainly not death."
While I commend your willingness to read the WaPo and the NYT, and apprise us of their ongoing, pig-headed perfidy, I fear you are losing your critical distance. No one who was not blinded by partisan hatred could suppose that Donald Trump is unreflective. Indeed, it is clear from watching him speak (and I hate watching him speak) that the reason he is able to appear so spontaneous is that he has pondered long on almost everything he says, long before he ever says it. He has a very active curiosity, and a vast store of random factlets to conjure with. And boy, is he out of fucks to give at this point.
Other interesting choices for non-presidential portraits were John Marshall (4th Chief Justice who helped establish the separation of powers and the supremacy of the federal government and federal Constitution over the states), Alexander Hamilton and Daniel Webster. Wikipedia says of Hamilton: "As a trusted member of President Washington's first cabinet, Hamilton served as the first U.S. secretary of the treasury. He envisioned a central government led by an energetic executive, a strong national defense, and a more diversified economy with significantly expanded industry." Of Webster, Wikipedia says: "Webster is widely regarded as an important and talented attorney, orator, and politician, but historians and observers have offered mixed opinions on his moral qualities and ability as a national leader."
They all seem in tune with Trump's philosophy of governing.
It is also curious that Adams, the one man with greater claim to authorship of the Constitution than any other, should fail to understand what his colleagues must have understood by the concept of succession in the context of political history as they knew it. From the stand point of 1787, no one had ever succeeded to the powers and prerogatives of an office, whether elective or hereditary, without succeeding to the title as well, with the signal exception of Oliver Cromwell, who would be the first to deny that as Lord Protector he had succeeded to the prerogatives of Charles I.
Phantummut: "I'm taken by the idea of being buried in a library"
I'd like to be embalmed, like Jeremy Bentham. And hidden in the stacks. So if someone unsuspectingly picks the right book, they have me staring back at them! CC, JSM
RSM: "I wonder what Old Kinderhook ("MVB") would've thought of "OK" becoming a gesture, "
My theory of the OK gesture is it comes from the old Catholic Mass. The priests, as good transubstantiationists, were deathly afraid of dropping even a crumb of the consecrated host on the floor. So from the time of consecration until just before they left the altar, they would leave their thumbs and forefingers together, trapping any crumbs. They would raise their hands in prayer and wave them around in the sign of the cross several times during this part of the canon. Not quite the OK sign, as the other fingers would be together, but pretty close. The congregation would see the hands like this at the "best" part of the mass -when the Body of Christ is there on the altar with us. So the gesture would be associated with everything being alright.
With a critical mass (hee hee) of RCs in our big cities, the practice would spread to everyone else, just like NYC blacks and Dominicans know some Yiddish words. CC, JSM
I like the Victorian, not minimalist, style of decorating myself..
Not gold leaf, but paintings, book spines, etc are nice for the eyes to rest upon rather than white or painted walls when inside...
To each his own.
And no, I don't arrange my books by color, but God bless those who do ..
@John henry, good explanation. The 25th Amendment Section 1 is the first thing I thought of when I read that sentence from the Professor, and I found her comment very surprising as I recall reading numerous times the actual status of the VP upon the office of President being vacated was a subject of contention.
I love all the portraits in the Trump oval. Who says you need everything to stay on one line?
"a chamber in the soon-to-come Trump library that looks something like ..." -- a glittering sarcophagus maybe? No matter, whatever the something is, the image is priceless. Althouse''s discerning eye conjures a fabulous connection.
Tyler's grandson passed away on May 25 this year at the age of 96 (his father was a sexagenarian when he was born and his grandfather was rather old when his father was born, covering the seemingly unlikely spans of time fairly easily). FYI, John Major, living in retirement in England, is the son of a man who was born in the 1860s.
Double-checked - Major's father, a music-hall performer, was actually not born until 1879.
Mary Tyler Moore must be an early Easter egg. ?
Pneumonia from “a cold he had contracted at his inaugural”. I’d like to see proof. That was the story I learned in school — Harrison caught his death of cold because he was foolish enough to give his inaugural speech without wearing a coat in the cold rain, settled science. Not a glimmer of cognitive dissonance was addressed in Health class when we were taught about viruses
I hope Usha takes some of Trump's unconventional decorating style in mind when she redecorates. We don't have to go back to Obama drab.
1 portait of a woman. 1st Lady Kennedy.
He could add your photo Readering. Then there'd be two.
Napoleon, the original short-fingered vulgarian.
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