Thursday 28 December 2017

Trump is a station

Of all the "achievements" Donald Trump has made since taking power on January 20, the one he might be secretly very pleased about is the announcement by Israel's transport minister that he wants to name a railway station in Jerusalem's Old City after the US president. It is surely the ambition of all leaders to be named after something. President Reagan has an airport in his name, in Washington, President Gerald Ford has a new class of aircraft carriers being built in his name, President George HW Bush's name is on the front gate of the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, then there's the Kennedy Centre in Washington, named after JFK. Trump has got himself a railway station - in Jerusalem. Well, it's only a suggestion at this stage but I can see Trump making a state visit to Jerusalem to open the new US embassy there, and then pop over to the railway station to look pleased with himself. Even Churchill didn't get a railway station named after him. But then Churchill is everywhere in the UK, most prominently in Parliament Square where a statue of his hunched figure glowers over the Houses of Parliament. There's also Churchill Square, Churchill Street, Churchill Crescent and Churchill Avenue. Perhaps when Trump has completed his first four-year term, some mayor down in the south will rename a side street Trump street. But for now, the president has to make do with Trump Tower in New York, Trump hotel in Washington and all the other buildings which he built or acquired before he entered the White House. But Trump Railway Station sounds pretty good, provide the Israeli transport minister gets his way.

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