[Want even more content from FPM? Sign up for FPM+ to unlock exclusive series, virtual town-halls with our authors, and more—now for just $3.99/month. Click here to sign up.]

In February 2021, President Joe Biden rescinded Donald Trump’s “Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture” executive order which had been signed only a few months before. Trump, in his executive order, had stressed that future federal buildings across the country preferably be built in a classical Greek, Roman, or similar style.

To rescind this Executive Order so early, Biden’s new administration made it clear that this was a matter of major importance to the new team. But why? What was Trump’s purpose in enacting this order, why was it so important to Biden to have it annulled immediately, and what did this entire episode have to tell us about the battle for American culture?

As with nearly all acts authorized by the former president, Donald Trump’s critics derided his so-called “Beautiful Buildings” order, deliberately misnaming it in an effort to belittle it. Instead of appreciating his efforts to beautify our national architecture, the haters saw a much more sinister aspect to his wanting Federal Buildings built in the classical style.

The response from Trump’s critics reveals the media’s manipulative efforts to imbue Trump’s executive order with sinister motives:

Artnet: “President Trump wants to make ‘Federal Buildings Beautiful Again’ with a new executive order that echoes fascist history.”

Forbes: “The dark side of Trump’s architectural fantasy.”

The Guardian: “Will Trump make architecture great again? The dark history of dictator chic.”

The New Republic: “Duncing about architecture: The ignorance and racism behind the right-wing push for ‘classical’ federal buildings.”

Ah, yes, of course. Fascists, Nazis, right-wingers, and architecture; it all is clear now.  If you are an admirer of the Parthenon, or any of the buildings of classical Rome, well, you are obviously a fascist. Who could argue with such logic?

It is no secret that Adolf Hitler admired classical architecture. He had grandiose plans for the future of Berlin, not just to rebuild it in the classical style, but also to rename the city Germania (The Latin name the Romans gave to the Germanic tribes). It doesn’t matter that the “classical” style that Hitler admired was a modern, almost classical, “brutalism” that he aspired to rebuild Berlin into. It was a kind of stripped classicism, relying heavily on the Greco-Roman era, but shorn of their ornaments.

It should not be considered particularly noteworthy that Hitler appreciated classical architecture. It should be a footnote, hardly worthy of discussion, but in these absurd times that we live in, it must be explained. The reason Mussolini and Hitler admired classical architecture is the same reason that millions of others have for 2,000 plus years. Why they wanted to replicate their cities in somewhat the classical model may differ from others, but that ancient Greece and Rome, as with Carthage, Constantinople, Alexandria and other great cities of the ancient world were and are admired is because the architecture is undeniably beautiful. It has been sustained for millenniums and has endured through the ages and history.

Trump’s critics linked the former president to the authoritarians of the past because he too wanted government buildings built in the classical style. And since Hitler admired classical architecture, ergo, Trump is another Hitler? From reports, Hitler loved chocolate eclairs and puppies. So, as we follow the logic, all lovers of chocolate and puppies are secret Nazis as well.

Enough of Hitler and Mussolini and their brutalist imitation of the ancient world, let us reach back further into our own history. Let us look to Thomas Jefferson, the man who not only wrote the document that declared our independence from Great Britain but was, in so many ways, our founding architect.

One cannot help but stand in awe of the original buildings in Washington D.C., which emulate the majestic look of ancient temples, pillars, and domes. That aesthetic was by design, part of Jefferson’s vision of the United States and his creation of a new American culture. The founding father knew that if our new country were to succeed, it had to develop a culture that was entirely American, but based on the exemplars of the past. The inspirations for Jefferson’s political and architectural beliefs were the classical civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome.

Joshua Johns at The Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society writes:

“Jefferson believed that architecture was the heart of the American cause. In his mind, a building was not merely a walled structure, but a metaphor for American ideology, and the process of construction was equal to the task of building a nation. The architecture of any American building should express the American desire to break cultural–as well as political–ties to Europe. American architecture, Jefferson believed, would embody the fulfillment of the civic life of Americans, and he sought to establish the standards of a national architecture, both aesthetically and politically.”

As Thomas Jefferson himself wrote in a letter to James Madison, September 20, 1785:

“How is a taste of this beautiful art to be formed in our countrymen, unless we avail ourselves of every occasion when public buildings are to be erected, of presenting to them models for their study and imitation?  You see, I am an enthusiast on the subject of the arts.  But it is an enthusiasm of which I am not ashamed, as its object is to improve the taste of my countrymen, to increase their reputation, to reconcile them to the rest of the world, and procure them its praise.”

Finally, in Jefferson’s message to Pierre Charles L’Enfant, the early designer of Washington D.C., “Whenever it is proposed to prepare plans for the Capitol, I should prefer the adoption of some one of the models of antiquity, which had the approbation of thousands of years….”

Is this Hitlerian and Fascist philosophy? Was Thomas Jefferson an early Nazi because of these values and beliefs? We all know that such claims are based in total absurdity, though the Left would want to make the argument anyway, such is the battle that we are in.

We do not know if Donald Trump, in his second term, will reintroduce the order “Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture,” or something similar. There is certainly a movement in Congress to do something in this vein. We can only hope that this finds a place in his new administration.

With all the challenges facing our nation, one can certainly question the importance placed here on architecture and beauty. President Trump will be faced with a full plate: immigration and the border, strengthening the economy, and managing numerous foreign policy crises.

What of all this talk concerning glory, beauty, art, and culture? What makes it so critical to the survival and restoration of America? How does culture fit into the lexicon of “Making America Great Again”? I am arguing that it is at the heart of this national resurgence and restoration that we desperately need to take place.

Whence America goes is unknown. With the 2024 election, we have a kind of reprieve from the nonstop Leftist onslaught on our culture, values, and on our very Republic. We also know that the Left will never relent, they will chase these false illusions until the end of time. Yes, that means attacking our economic system, attacking the “patriarchy” of America society, all the isms, the family, everything comes under attack. And central to these attacks is that of our history, culture, art, beauty, and everything that we cherish.

Indeed, I would argue that the Left hates beauty. The uglification of culture that has taken place over the past century, the destruction of beautiful art, architecture, literature, and poetry has all been a design of the Left and stems from their hatred of American values. The Left has performed its own version of Mao’s Cultural Revolution here at home. It believes that in order to build the perfect heaven on earth, its utopia, one must totally destroy the past.

With every fiber of our being, we must stand against these attacks. Whatever becomes of our great nation, we must stand for its enduring values. Garet Garrett wrote in 1952, “We have crossed the boundary that lies between Republic and Empire.” Perhaps the seeds of our demise have already been planted. But that does not mean that we are still not great, and it does not mean that there cannot be a restoration of our culture. Greece and Rome fell, but their cultures endured, endured for the ages and as examples for all to follow. It is the goal of the Left to destroy what is great and glorious about our nation and people. It is in fact all-encompassing and beyond the scope of this article, but for our small part, we must look at our public buildings and our art.

For as the great Henry Hope Reed states in his magisterial book “The Golden City” in discussing the glory and beauty of art:

“…it is essentially in visual terms that we seek to evoke it. “The heavens declare the glory of God,” goes the Nineteenth Psalm, “and the firmament showeth his handwork.” And, to have meaning for us, it must be found in the visual.  Leone Battista Alberti, the great Italian architect and humanist, declared that “when we lift up our eyes to heaven, and view the wonderful works of God, we admire Him more for the beauties which we see than for the conveniences which we feel and derive from them.” Man makes a sacrifice of effort and skill in embellishing canvas, stone or medal. By embellishing them he gives them true substance, seeking the sense of permanence which is so much part of reality.  His goal is to achieve dignity, invite inspiration, and perhaps attain glory.  Man in this way, reaches upward to the heavens, a striving not disdained by the majesty of God, as St. Augustine reminds us.”

We must keep reaching upwards to the heavens, in all we do, in all we build, and in all we create. For America, and the ideals it represents, must endure.