Experts say the unprecedented wave of proposals to honor a sitting president resembles practices in authoritarian regimes rather than American tradition.
President Donald Trump poses at Mount Rushmore National Memorial near Keystone, South Dakota, in 2020 during his first term. WASHINGTON - Congressional Republicans including Ohio’s Bernie Moreno and Michael Rulli are giving the term “hail to the chief” a whole new meaning.
In the six months since President Donald Trump’s second inauguration, Republicans in Congress have introduced at least 10 legislative proposals to honor and memorialize Trump while he remains in office — everything from putting his face on currency to carving it into Mount Rushmore. Political scholars say the proposed tributes to a sitting president represents an extraordinary departure from U.S. traditions that eschew such homage until presidents leave office or die. “There’s usually been a reticence to do stuff to elevate a current figure into kind of a mythical category,” says University of Akron political scientist David Cohen, who traces that inclination to the founders’ distaste for monarchs as they broke away from England. ”This is a unique moment in American history." He compared the fawning to how officials in authoritarian regimes like Russia, China and North Korea treat national leaders. “Those are leadership styles that Trump has always admired,” Cohen said. “Republicans in Congress can see that, so they know the way to Trump’s heart is to praise him excessively.”urging the U.S. Senate to formally nominate Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. Rulli, a U.S. Representative from Salem, proposed designating July 13 as a national “Faith and Defiance Day” to commemorate the anniversary of the assassination attempt against Trump. Other legislative proposals would rename major infrastructure for Trump, make his birthday a federal holiday, and even change the U.S. Constitution to let him serve a third term. Few of the bills are likely to become law due to constitutional obstacles, the challenges of passing legislation, and basic logistics.there is no suitable rock left to carve on Mount Rushmore. And putting Trump’s image on currency would require repealingBut practicality doesn’t matter in what political scientists describe as a competition among Republicans to show fealty to Trump. Ohio State University emeritus political scientist Herb Asher said the current efforts go “much, much beyond the notion of recognizing” presidents, noting that while naming things after public figures has occurred before, “the extent of this for Trump is really quite different from what we’ve seen in the past.” “It could be that some genuinely think of Trump as being the Supreme Leader and think he should be recognized in those ways,” says Asher. “Others believe that the best way to curry favor with Trump is to do these kinds of things. They recognize that Trump loves to be admired, recognized, and all of that. So they’re doing something that will make their relationships with Donald Trump even closer.”Moreno argues Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for “brokering a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Iran, soon after he ordered a U.S. bombing raid on Iran’s nuclear facilities.” His resolution contrasts Obama’s record on peace with Trump’s and expresses the Senate’s “deepest appreciation to President Trump for bringing an end both to the nuclear program of Iran and hostilities related thereto in only 12 days.” “President Trump just pulled off what neocons and Democrat globalists have failed to do for decades: peace in the Middle East with Iran’s nuclear arsenal decimated – all with no American boots on the ground, American casualties, or injuries,” Moreno said a statement. An assessment by the administration in mid-July suggests that one of three Iranian nuclear refinement sites was mostly destroyed by attacks Trump ordered in June, but two others could return to processing uranium within a matter of months,. The ceasefire, meanwhile, has held, but it was not accompanied by any formal political agreement or oversight mechanism, making it a temporary pause rather than a long-term resolution, thewith winning a Nobel Peace Prize. Former White House chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel traces Trump’s obsession largely to the fact that Trump’s Democratic predecessor and Emanuel’s ex-boss, Barack Obama, got“I think I’m going to get a Nobel Prize for a lot of things, if they gave it out fairly, which they don’t,”Rulli’s resolution would designate July 13 as “Faith and Defiance Day” to honor Trump and those killed and injured on that day in 2024 at the Butler, Pennsylvania, campaign rally where an assassin’s bullet grazed the president’s ear.“That is the American spirit – faithful, defiant, and unstoppable,” Rulli said in mid-July. “You see one or two events in your life that inspire you to be more than you are, that strike you to your core. This was one of them. God saved the President that day, and that’s something worth recognizing for the rest of time.”The Ohioans’ gestures join a long list of tributes from Republican legislators eager to show their love to Trump.” which seeks to rename the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to the Donald J. Trump Center for Performing Arts. “It makes my blood boil,” wrote Shriver, a television journalist who is California’s former first lady. “It’s so ridiculous, so petty, so small minded.”that would name the Kennedy Center’s Opera House for first lady Melania Trump. Simpson said renaming the opera house would be an “excellent way to recognize her appreciation for the arts.” Claiming that Trump “will be forever remembered among the great like Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Floridathat would block all federal funding to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority until it officially changes its name to the “Washington Metropolitan Authority for Greater Access” and renames the Metrorail the “Trump Train.”on Valentine’s Day that would make Trump’s birthday, June 14, a national holiday alongside Flag Day. “Just as George Washington’s Birthday is codified as a federal holiday, this bill will add Trump’s Birthday to this list, recognizing him as the founder of America’s Golden Age,” said a statement from Tenney.proposing a constitutional amendment that would make Trump eligible for a third term. Ogles says allowing Trump to serve longer than the Constitution allows would ensure “that we can sustain the bold leadership our nation so desperately needs.”University of Akron’s Cohen predicts that some of the bills may actually pass, despite their unusual nature. “If you’re asking me a year ago, I’d say there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell but now I really can’t discount it,” said Cohen. “I think some of these bills probably will pass because the need of Republicans in Congress to be on the president’s good side and not be in his crosshairs, is really, really important to them.” Cohen says that Republicans running for re-election will need Trump’s support to get what they need to help their districts and states, and also to avoid having him endorse potential primary opponents. “They’re not really concerned about the historical legacy of the country,” Cohen says of those who have introduced legislation that caters to Trump’s vanity. “They’re only concerned really about their own personal power position with the current occupant of the White House.”If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation.and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our
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