Image: keystone
analysis
The US President wants his son to carry on his fame.
May 10, 2026, 05:07May 10, 2026, 05:07
Even the Romans knew that fame is fleeting. “Sic transit gloria mundi,” goes a well-known Latin quote. And the Roman emperors did everything they could to fight the decline of their personal glory. Caligula, for example, had temples named after him, had golden statues of himself erected in Rome and – to demonstrate his contempt for the political caste – made a horse consul, the highest civil and military office.
Donald Trump sings from the same hymn book. He will be 80 years old next June. Although he boasts that he is “an extraordinarily brilliant person,” he at least suspects that that doesn’t make him immortal. Like Caligula, he frantically does everything he can to ensure that posterity remembers him.
Fixated on the ballroom: President Donald Trump.Image: keystone
His ballroom no longer costs 200 million but a billion dollars, and the money no longer comes from private patrons but from taxpayers. Trump’s Triumphal Arch in Washington, to be built by 2028, is also intended to last forever. The president has also had an oversized golden statue made that will one day be placed in his library, which is planned to become a skyscraper in Miami.
Ultimately, Trump not only wants airports and train stations across the country to be named after him, but is also pushing for his likeness to be carved into Mount Rushmore, a mountain in the state of South Dakota, alongside George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.
Trump also knows that none of this will be enough. He can also imagine that many in Washington are already rubbing their hands, that on the day on which he will take off for Florida in his private jet for the second time, his successor will bring in the excavators and wrecking balls to put an end to the horror, not only to remove the gold orgy in the White House, but possibly also to demolish the Ballroom and Triumphal Arch – if they are ever built.
Trump also knows that even a successor from the ranks of the Grand Old Party could act like this, because he is aware that his sycophants are opportunists who hate him from the bottom of their hearts. Only if he manages to get a member of his own family into the Oval Office will there be a chance that his grandiose kitsch will survive him.
In other words: Trump needs a dynasty. Edward Luce also comes to this conclusion in the “Financial Times”. He writes:
“It is often stated that Trump loves the pomp of the monarchy and craves the power of an autocrat. Last week it was Charles III. Next week he will be a guest of China’s ‘lifelong president’ Xi Jinping. What is overlooked is the royal line of succession. Given Trump’s monumental, ambitious projects, it would be strange if he didn’t think about a dynasty.”
The only possible successor from his own family is Don Jr. His brother Eric is considered a laughingstock, Baron and Tiffany have not yet reached the constitutionally required minimum age of 35, and Ivanka has completely withdrawn from politics. Trump’s eldest son is eager to make a name for himself politically, but so far with limited success. The Polymarket betting agency currently estimates his chances of succeeding his father as American president at three percent.
Father and son on the White House lawn.Image: keystone
JD Vance and Marco Rubio are currently considered the Republican favorites. But that could change. Trump is doing everything he can to make both of them as small as possible, not only because, like all dictators, he does not anoint a successor as that would immediately diminish his power, but also to keep a door open for his son.
That is why the deputy and the foreign minister pay a high price. They are regularly humiliated. There is speculation that Trump started the argument with the Pope not only out of megalomania, but also to make Vance look bad. He is a devout Catholic and his second book will soon be published, in which he describes how he found faith. In order not to upset Trump, however, he had to resort to giving the Pope tutoring in theology.
Vance is also not allowed to travel to Rome to iron out the dispute between the Vatican and the White House. Marco Rubio was entrusted with this task, although as foreign minister and security advisor, he probably had more urgent things to do in view of the Iran war. Trump wants to show everyone that Rubio is no Henry Kissinger, and – to underline this – he makes him wear ugly shoes that are way too big.
Are regularly dissed: JD Vance (left) and Marco Rubio.Image: keystone
Vance and Rubio are among the members of the Cabinet who can be said to lack morals, but not to lack intelligence. This does not apply to other members of the government, such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth or FBI Director Kash Patel. Their actions are so embarrassing that Washington is currently betting not if, but when they will be fired – like Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-Deremer.
The president’s megalomania, coupled with the incompetence of his administration, has become a danger to the United States. The Economist writes:
«Mr. Trump, a fan of golden statues, marble monuments and cage fights, has not yet appointed a horse to his cabinet. However, he has placed unqualified sycophants in high positions where they compete for the president’s favor and gain advantages. Americans can only hope that these follies are limited to the Trump era and can be reversed thereafter.”