04/03/2026
European historian, Timothy W. Ryback, has written a powerful article in The Atlantic entitled, "Hi**er’s Edifice Complex." Ryback never mentions Trump, but you can feel his presence in everything that Hi**er did. Ryback displays in words and photos, some of Hi**er's "grandiose architectural ambitions" for Berlin, the nation’s capital. Ryback focuses on Hi**er's obsession with "adding an expensive new wing to the Reich chancellery," and "a new annex, connected to the chancellery by a marble corridor hung with crystal chandeliers.
Hi**er wanted a Triumphbogen, a triumphal arch, twice the size of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. He wanted an “Avenue of Splendor” for military parades. Hi**er told his architect, Albert Speer, that “the Champs-Élysées is a hundred meters wide. . . . We will make our avenue twenty meters wider." Later, as Hi**er's Minister of Armaments, Speer "dramatically increased war production by employing slave labor, resulting in his conviction at the Nuremberg trials."
One is struck by the architectural similarities with Trump's reconfiguration of the White House East wing, and the proposed Ballroom: lots of gold, marble, and tall Roman style columns. While our President studies his ballroom design, gas prices rise he makes it more expensive to buy an electric car or groceries. He shows off his designs as he flies to Mara Lago to party and golf. Outrage is appropriate: No kings!
