By
Margaret Hartmann,
senior editor for Intelligencer who has worked at New York since 2012
The most iconic attraction at the Great American State Fair, the 16-day event currently happening on the National Mall, is a replica of Donald Trump’s proposed triumphal arch. The structure is both sad and unnecessary; the president regularly shows off models and artist renderings of his “Arc de Trump,” so who needs to see a crude small-scale version clumsily constructed out of vinyl stapled over plywood?
Whatever the original intention, this Arc de Trash is the perfect symbol of how the Capital’s celebration of America 250 has been turned into a Trump-infused disaster. And now it’s become emblematic of Trump’s broader, botched attempts to remake D.C. to fit his gaudy tastes. Much like the Reflecting Pool debacle, an attempt to renovate the state fair’s wooden arch has turned it into an even bigger mess.
