President Donald Trump wants to receive his flowers while he can still smell them. That means seeing his name on big, important stuff.
It's a legacy play I recognized two years ago in one of Morocco's most wondrous attractions, the Mausoleum of Moulay Isma'il, a three-centuries-old complex that holds the tomb of Sultan Moulay Isma'il.
Trump, 80, clearly wants that sort of greatness.
Building idols to himself that he can sit back and enjoy is the reason Trump has destroyed parts of the White House for a ballroom no one spending more than $4 for a gallon of gas asked for.
It is why he is planning a 250-foot-tall, "magnificent" Arc de Triomphe-esque sniper post near the entrance to hallowed Arlington National Cemetery.
It is also the reason he's fighting
U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty, the Columbus Democrat and ex officio member of the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees who has artfully ‒ and sometimes hilariously ‒ trolled the president on social media, while her lawsuit stopped him from adding his name to the historic John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
"And he went into a tantrum," Beatty said on MSNow's "The Weeknight" of her Sept. 15 exchange with Trump, which happened at a Kennedy Center board meeting. "It was the most unprofessional thing that I've ever witnessed or been a part of. He went into name-calling, everything from trying to say that I was an obstructionist, I was dumb. He said, 'I think you're incompetent.' And I said, 'I know you're incompetent.'"
Mausoleum of Moulay Ismail in Meknes, Morocco." id="91880060007">
The Kingdom of Morocco
Trump is the first living president in a century to have his portrait on the $1 coin alongside the words "Liberty" and "In God We Trust." Then there is the Donald J. Trump $250 Bill Act.
Living kings and queens commonly have their faces all over money.
That's the case in Morocco, a country with free speech, except when it comes to criticizing and insulting the royal family and Islam. That, for now, isn't the case in America.
Even under our embattled First Amendment, Trump can be criticized for warmongering, racism, misogyny, sexual violence,and cruelty ‒ particularly to immigrants, including Springfield's Haitian community.
Despite the limitations of freedoms, everyone we spoke to while touring the strikingly beautiful, painfully gritty and remarkably welcoming Morocco seemingly loved King Mohammed VI, both head of state and commander of the faithful.
Based on poll numbers, that admiration definitely isn't true for Trump. It wasn't the case for Mohammed VI's dad, the autocratic and free press-hating Hassan II, who famously faked mortal wounds as part of a ruse that tricked two attacking Moroccan Air Force pilots.
Even with all of his cruelty to political opponents, Hassan II was far from the most feared Moroccan leader.
His ruthlessness is lightweightcompared to what you'd get if you found yourself on the bad side of Moulay Isma'il (Ismael), the Sharifian Emperor of Morocco from 1672 to 1727, who had four wives, hundreds of concubines, and 888 (per Guinness World Records) to more than 1,000 kids, some of whom he had suffocated at birth or otherwise murdered. He did this all while building the mausoleum that wowed me in Morrocco.
Known as "The Bloodthirsty,"Moulay Isma'il strangled concubines he suspected of cheating or had their breasts cut off or their teeth torn out, according to a paper published by the National Library of Medicine. Men who merely looked at them were put to death.
Figurative and actual bloodletting (Renee Good, Alex Pretti, Pierre Damas Bel, to name a few) has happened under Trump's reign. His hands aren't clean, but there's no comparing Trump to Isma'il ‒ who murdered more than 30,000 people off the battlefield ‒ when it comes to brutality.
Mausoleum, Mount Rushmore and an airport
But there is a comparison when it comes to the desire to build temples to oneself. Like The Bloodthirsty, our president doesn't want to be forgotten, and clearly wants to be respected and revered.
That's why Beatty is stuck so deep in his craw.
Trump as a beloved war hero who brought us a glorious arch and a spectacular ballroom. Trump as a patron of the arts worthy of a $250 dollar bill.
Around 1703, more than two decades before his death, Ismail, a father of modern Morocco despite his brutality, had the lavish Mausoleum of Moulay Isma'il built to honor himself. Like Trump, he wanted to smell the roses from this side.
The complex and the stunning Bab Mansour gate were no doubt meant to project Ismail's extreme power, but I am guessing he was also rewriting his legacy in real time, the way Trump hopes to.
To see the peaceful courtyard leading to the tombs inside, you'd never guess how many lives Isma'il ruined during his reign of terror.
No, Trump has not committed the level of bloodletting Moroccans experienced during Isma'il's time.
But his lust for public acclaim and the admiration enjoyed by the likes of Barack Obama, John F. Kennedy and the four presidents on Mount Rushmore won't put food on Americans' tables, although it clearly keeps him up at night ranting on Truth Social.
His supporters in Congress are pushing his dreams of false idols.
- We can't forget the bill introducedin 2025 to direct the National Park Service to carve Trump's likeness into Mount Rushmore. ”He will be forever remembered among the great like Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt,” U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina, R-Florida, said in a press release.
- U.S. Rep. Greg Steube, R-Florida, introduced a bill that would block federal funding to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority until it changed its name to the “Washington Metropolitan Authority for Greater Access” and renamed the Metrorail the “Trump Train.”
- A bill to rename Washington's Dulles Airport the Donald J. Trump International Airport was introduced in January of 2025.
Trump apparently hasn't abandoned that idea.
He reportedly told Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, in February that he'd unfreeze $16 billion in funding for New York projects if Schumer would agree to rename Dulles and New York's Penn Station in his honor.
Trump wants to be celebrated for the towers built in his honor. So far, all it amounts to is bluster.
Isma'il built a mausoleum to make sure he wouldn't be forgotten. More than 300 years later, Trump wants the same. Visitors marvel at the Mausoleum of Moulay Isma'il's architecture, and historians still debate and condemn the brutality of the man whose body rests inside.
Stone can survive the centuries. So can the truth.
Mausoleum of Moulay Ismail in Meknes, Morocco." id="91879938007">
Amelia Robinson is the Columbus Dispatch's opinion and community engagement editor.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Joyce Beatty gnaws at Trump's ego as he thirsts for monuments to himself | Opinion
