Paul Waldman on Donald Trump’s “frenzy of construction and renaming” (the illegally renamed Kennedy Center, a proposed “Arc de Trump,” the East Wing ballroom, “Trump Class” battleships, TrumpRx, Trump Accounts, Trump Gold Cards…):

Some of these are programs and websites, but the ones that are most important to the president — the ballroom, the ships, the signage on buildings, the arch — are the ones that have physical form.

What’s going on here? Narcissism, insecurity, self-aggrandizement, the mania of the cult leader — sure. But there’s something else at work.

Trump is haunted by mortality.

That’s the most succinct explanation I’ve seen of Trump’s desperate attempts to avoid becoming a forgotten footnote in history.

I wholeheartedly endorse Waldman’s recommendations for addressing Trump’s narcissism:

In the first hours and days of the next president’s term, there must be a concerted effort to utterly expunge the name “Donald Trump” from every federal building, outpost, sign, website, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse, and doghouse, except where necessary for historical accuracy.

And not just the name, but every vulgar trace of him: Chisel off the letters, take down the photos, melt down the stupid coins, tear out his patio and replant the Rose Garden, strip all the chintzy gold appliques from the walls of the Oval Office. Maybe even demolish the ballroom, but at the very least remodel it so it doesn’t look so much like an obscene mashup of the Winter Palace and Saddam Hussein’s bathroom, then rename it for someone he hates. The Obama Ballroom has a nice ring to it.

I’ll bet all the money in my pockets against all the money in your pockets that Donald Trump would sooner destroy the world than see “his” ballroom named after President Obama.