Trump’s vanity projects are a growing mess | CNN Politics

President Donald Trump’s efforts to turn his second term into a big vanity project largely focused on himself are looking increasingly messy. It would be one thing for him to go to such great lengths to build an elaborate White House ballroom and slap his name on buildings in the best of times; but Trump’s timing would seem exceedingly tone deaf, given most Americans are more concerned about their own pocketbooks than honoring a historically unpopular president. And repeatedly in recent days and weeks, the administration’s initiatives have run into roadblocks and its efforts to embellish Washington, DC, (often by skirting the law) have looked rather haphazard. Perhaps most striking was Trump’s setback at the Kennedy Center. After he effectively hijacked the center’s board by installing loyalists, the board moved to — surprise! — put Trump’s name on the building late last year. They added it alongside the deceased president whose name was on the building as a matter of federal law. But after the courts predictably ruled that was illegal, the administration has had to confront the optics of taking Trump’s name off the building. As I wrote earlier this month, that re