McMansion Hell posted an intriguing article situating the tasteless gold (or, rather, "golden") accouterments that litter the White House now that Trump's in it again. The tradition is "car dealership Rococo," writes Kate Wagner.
If you, like me, were putzing around on social media last night, you perhaps saw this post in which data journalist John Keegan claims to have found the original source from which Trump ordered the ridiculous gold-painted faux Rococo slop currently hot glued onto every visible surface of the oval office. In a separate blog, Keegan convincingly compared close ups of the Trump appliques with a set of polyurethane offerings listed by Chinese wholesaler AliBaba.* … In my last McMansion Hell post, I deployed the phrase "Regional Car Dealership Rococo" (henceforth RCDR) as a joke, but I think it works well as a broader idea. We can define RCDR as the ad hoc revival of 18th century ornamentation that arose, perhaps inevitably, during a period of skyrocketing income inequality coupled with consolidated global supply chains that brought down the cost of architectural materials. Culturally, it is a weed in Postmodernism's garden bed.
You call him "Libernazi" but Liberace would never have glued them on sideways like that.
Previously:
• Trump's new loyalty test: 'golden Trump bust lapel pins'
• Trump 'Golden Age' brings U.S. worst quarter since Covid
