Steve Benen at MS Now with Trump’s latest:
In October, Donald Trump halted funding on the Gateway tunnel construction project, one of the nation’s most important infrastructure investments: a $16 billion endeavor that would connect New York and New Jersey via a pair of train tubes that would benefit the entire region.
The good news is, the president recently signaled a willingness to release the resources that would allow work to continue and prevent significant layoffs. The bad news is, he had a transaction in mind: Trump told Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer that the money would be restored if Democrats agreed to rename Dulles International Airport and New York’s Penn Station after Trump.
The president’s pitch was, for all intents and purposes, an attempt at extortion: If Democrats wanted to save a critical infrastructure project and prevent the job losses, they had to indulge Trump’s obsession with self-glorification.
The White House made little effort to deny the accuracy of the reporting, and on Friday night, during a brief Q&A on Air Force One, a reporter asked the Republican, “Can you set the record straight? There were reports circulating that you told Chuck Schumer that in order to restore funding for the Gateway train tunnel in New York, New Jersey, you would want Penn Station and Dulles Airport to be named after you. Is that true?”
The ideal answer would have been, “No, of course not, that would be insane.” Alas, that’s not what Trump said.
“He suggested that to me,” Trump replied. “Chuck Schumer suggested that to me about changing the name. … It was suggested to me by numerous people, unions, Democrats, Republicans, a lot of people suggested.”
Schumer said it is an “absolute lie,” which is backed up by the fact that Schumer didn’t agree to whatever it was Trump suggested and, needless to say, the evidence we have all around us of the narcissistic freak pasting his name on everything in sight all over the country. He’s demanding that they give him the Nobel Peace Prize for doing absolutely nothing and has completely torn up the nation’s alliances in that pursuit! The man is obsessed and everyone knows it. So of course he suggested it.
As I’ve said before I’m worried that the Democrats will lose their nerve and let this bullshit stand and I think that’s a very bad idea. If we survive his regime — and there’s no guarantee that we will — but if we do, this extreme demonstration of twisted egomania has to be exorcised from all public places or his cult will continue to hang on on some form or another. That’s what he’s counting on and we just can’t allow that.