WE HAVE THE UFC AT THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL BECAUSE TRUMP DOESN'T KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HISTORIC IMPORTANCE AND FAME

Why is this happening?

In front of the Lincoln Memorial. This.

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— Olga Nesterova (@onestpress.onestnetwork.com) June 13, 2026 at 2:09 PM

Obviously it's happening because it pleases Donald Trump, who is a shallow vulgarian. But it's more than that. It's happening because Trump envies Abraham Lincoln -- and envies him in the wrong way. When Trump looks at the Lincoln Memorial -- and also the Washington Monument -- he doesn't see tributes to presidents whose deeds (and also, in Lincoln's case, words) were historically important. He sees presidents who are famous -- famous the way celebrities are famous, famous the way he wants to be famous, now and after his death. Trump is jealous of their fame and wants to usurp it, particularly Lincoln's.

Presidents don't need to have a deep understanding of history. Ronald Reagan didn't. George W. Bush didn't. But even Reagan and Dubya understood that presidential deeds exist on a separate plane from popular celebrity. Reagan thought his efforts to win the Cold War once and for all (and lower taxes on the rich, and destroy the American labor movement) would change the course of history. He was right to think that. He seemed to understand that this wasn't at all like being famous in Hollywood, even if he used Hollywood techniques to sell the public on his presidency.

George W. Bush thought his decision to conquer Iraq and direct its future was historically significant. He was right, though not in the way he imagined.

Barack Obama, who understands history, does things that celebrities do (for instance, compiling an annual list of favorite books, songs, and movies and posting it on Instagram), but as president he did things he hoped would change the course of history (for instance, fighting to pass the Affordable Care Act, or negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran). Obama knows that those acts are on separate planes.

All Donald Trump sees is fame. That's why he seemed to have no actual goal when he decided to attack Iran. He just wanted to be famous for being the guy who beat Iran after all the other presidents failed.

Trump has profound Lincoln envy, but when he looks at Lincoln, what he sees is pure surface. He said in a 2016 campaign speech:

I can be more presidential than any president the United States has ever had except for honest Abe Lincoln. He's tough with the top hat. I can't. Honest Abe. I mean, he was seriously president. Honest Abe. I don't think I can beat honest Abe.

That was five days after he said:

I could be the most presidential person other than -- I always joke and say other than Abe Lincoln. He was pretty good. He was a serious president, right? He had the serious president look.

By the 2024 campaign, he was regularly saying this:

... they said, you know, sir, you're gonna go down as one of the greatest presidents ever. I said, really? No. I said, really? I said, better than Washington. They said, yes, sir. I said, better than honest, Abe Lincoln. They said, yes, sir. I said, I like this guy that said that. I said, guy --, that's a smart guy.

In between, in 2020, there was this during the early days of COVID:

As President Trump’s aides ran down the list of possible backdrops for his latest Fox News event, they eventually landed on their favorite: the Lincoln Memorial, an iconic tribute to an American life, and one of Mr. Trump’s preferred places to add a prime-time touch of drama to his presidency.

There was just one catch: While Mr. Trump and many other presidents have hosted inauguration concerts and gatherings on the memorial’s steps, any event meant to draw an audience inside the interior near Daniel Chester French’s sculpture of a seated Lincoln is prohibited. The area beginning with the marble staircase where the columns start constitutes a boundary protected by federal law.

So on Sunday, when the president sat down with two Fox News anchors at Lincoln’s marbled feet during a coronavirus-focused virtual “town hall,” it was because a directive issued by David Bernhardt, the secretary of the interior, had allowed them to do so.

Mr. Bernhardt, a former oil lobbyist whose Senate nomination was contested by Democrats who pointed to multiple accusations of conflicts of interest and ethical violations, ordered the memorial temporarily closed for the event, citing the coronavirus.

The article, by Katie Rogers of The New York Times, says that Trump's aides chose the site, but Fox's Bret Baier, addressing Trump, referred to it as "Your choice."

The triumphal arch that Trump now wants to build would be massive, and would ruin historically meaningful site lines in Washington, as this NPR story notes:

The proposed structure would be 250 feet tall, more than double the height of the Lincoln Memorial. That's concerning to preservationists and members of the public who have expressed opposition to the project at every turn — in large part because it would obstruct this significant line of sight.

"The connection of the Lincoln Memorial, representing Lincoln himself, to the home of the leader of the Confederate Army, Robert E. Lee, was designed to help heal the wounds of the war that tore apart the nation ... to disrupt this view would disrupt this reconciliation," said architectural historian Alison Hoagland, one of several concerned speakers at the Commission of Fine Arts' May meeting.

But of course Trump wants his arch to diminish the Lincoln Memorial. Remember, this is the guy who responded to the destruction of the Twin Towers on 9/11 by (incorrectly) telling a radio interviewer that he now owned downtown Manhattan's tallest building.

... [Alan] Marcus asked whether Trump’s 40 Wall Street building had suffered any damage. Before getting into his response about his Financial District property, the businessman had something he wanted on the record.

“40 Wall Street actually was the second-tallest building in downtown Manhattan, and it was actually, before the World Trade Center, was the tallest — and then, when they built the World Trade Center, it became known as the second tallest,” Trump said in the WWOR interview. “And now it’s the tallest.”

To Trump, history has no meaning. Only prominence and fame are real.

We can see this even in an absurd moment early in Trump's first term. I'm sure you recall the day in 2017 when it seemed clear that Trump had no idea who Frederick Douglass was. Trump described him as "an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more." But take a look at this longer version of that quote, from CNN:

Trump spoke Wednesday about Douglass – who died in 1895 – and Martin Luther King Jr. through the context of the National Museum of African-American History and Culture, the newest Smithsonian museum that opened in 2016.

“I am very proud now that we have a museum on the National Mall where people can learn about Reverend King, so many other things,” Trump said. “Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more, I notice.”

Trump added: “Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, and millions more black Americans who made America what it is today. Big impact.”

"Big impact," "an amazing job," "recognized more and more" -- that's what you say about someone who shows up regularly on the New Yotk Post's Page Six. That's Trump's main measure of significance. To Trump, Washington, Lincoln, King, Douglass, Tubman, and Parks are just boldface names. And he wants to be America's greatest boldface name ever. It's why he first thought about running for president forty years ago.