A new MAGA movement, MABA, aims to “Make America Beautiful Again” one building at a time, according to a new Politico report.
“Classical architecture is the architecture of American democracy,” Justin Shubow, the president of the non-profit National Civic Art Society, told the outlet. “It is the architecture of civic virtue.”
Shubow has teamed up with Republican mega-donor and chair of the conservative think tank the Claremont Institute, Tom Klingenstein, to make buildings across the United States beautiful again.
“The American people think [classical buildings] are more beautiful — it’s just common sense,” Klingenstein told the outlet. “And as you know, Trump operates on common sense.”
He then elaborated, “Central to [Trump’s] thinking is anti-wokeness, and modern architecture’s rejection of the past is woke.”
Klingenstein added, “In this woke world, we’re trying to erase our past and reject as racist our Western roots [returning to classical design and architecture], we’re trying to recover our Western heritage.”
The group's first attempt to sway Trump to their plight would be to rebuild a key transit hub in the blue heart of New York City, Penn Station.
“I think it could be a way of making amends with the city by doing something great for it,” Klingenstein told the outlet. He later added that the move would be a "pure expression of the Trumpian ethos": “This is big. It’s bold. It’s Trump.”
The original Penn Station was built between 1908 and 1910 and demolished in 1963. It is currently a transportation hub and concert venue. It is also home to the New York Knicks and New York Rangers.
Called the Grand Penn plan, Shubow believes, “Building a fantastic new Penn Station with classical architecture would make a statement about American civilization in the same way that the rebuilding of Notre Dame in Paris said something about French civilization.” He added, “This project is so important that this could be one of the president’s biggest legacies.”