The Trump Administration is reportedly going to demand that New York’s Penn Station be renamed in honor of Trump. That would be totally on brand for this Administration. It would be further evidence–as if we needed any–of our descent into an absolutist (and monarchist) cult of personality.
If nothing else, it would incite furious responses among Trump opponents in New York and New Jersey, which is pretty much everyone if you gauge opposition to Trump by the boos heard at Madison Square Garden when Trump showed up for a nap at the NBA finals. See also the reception Trump received in New Jersey at the World Cup final. In fact, provoking such a response might be the entire point.
So keeping in mind the possibility that the Administration is trying to get a rise out of us, I think we should view the Administration’s obsession with naming things after Trump as an occasion for satire (see some of my previous blog entries), but we shouldn’t let it set the agenda for political opposition to Trump and his Administration (any more than Hegseth’s obsession with testosterone levels should be allowed to distract us from Pete’s racism, sexism, and utter unfitness for his position).
In short, let’s remember: (1) what can be renamed can be renamed again, and (2) we shouldn’t let absurdities like Trump’s renaming frenzy distract us from the Administration’s egregious failures on the economy, the Iran war, foreign policy in general, disease prevention, and, oh yeah, releasing the Epstein files.