Your Daily Guide

Paint the Town…White? Oh joy: Donald Trump’s arch is making news again. Last week, a Trump-appointed federal panel okayed designs for the gargantuan structure. The same day, the Washington Post published an article in which Trump's handpicked arts commission chair, Rodney Mims Cook Jr., said that we really need three arches, not one. What’s going on?

Trump’s proposal tends to get shorthanded as another case of right-wing culture warriors foisting stodgy classical buildings on our city. But the newest blueprints actually disprove that. Catesby Leigh, the classicist who first proposed the arch, is now spooked by its skyline-dominating size, which violates classical rules about proportion. The ousted architect of the White House ballroom clashed with Trump over that same notion.

In fact, you don’t need fancy architectural knowledge to see what’s up. Just look at the color! Renderings of the arch are an almost blinding white. That’s also the hue of the “magic paint” with which Trump aims to redo the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. And it’s the jarring new color of the Kennedy Center’s columns.

What’s notable is that you actually won’t find this look in the western-civ monuments that MAGA types love and MAGA foes resent. Napoleon’s original arch is gray. So are the Parisian inspirations for the EEOB. The fascist aesthetic denounced at Thursday’s anti-arch protests was mostly gray, too. Ditto our city’s own Federal Triangle, whose columns and pedestals conservatives adore.

Instead of a revival of tradition, the emerging aesthetic of Trump-era D.C. is its own, very contemporary, thing — a kind of architectural version of Mar-a-Lago Face. Maybe you like it. Maybe you don’t. For now, there’s not much you can do about it. Just don’t call it “classical.”

Empower Outage: The ride-share app has famously urged customers to vote against politicians who banned it in D.C. It’s a dubious tactic because many candidates would relish a public fight against a controversial tech firm. Case in point: Mayoral hopeful Kenyan McDuffie, who posted a threatening DM he says his daughter got as a result of Empower’s campaign. “I will not be intimidated,” McDuffie huffed.

Kennedy Center Goners: An Atlantic piece by laid-off staffer Josef Palermo recounts the Kennedy Center under Trump. The depiction of “cronyism [and] incompetence” is devastating — especially because Palermo’s not some KenCen lifer: He was hired by Ric Grenell, Trump’s handpicked leader. Hometown takeaway: As pros like Palermo are cast off, D.C. becomes less attractive for people who move here to work in federal arts institutions — and enrich local culture in the process.

A Ghastly Death: There’s a burgeoning controversy over the death of a Hispanic male found hanging from a tree in Brightwood. The Washington Informer’s Sam Plo Kwia Collins Jr. recounts his frustration getting details from MPD, which finally gave a statement saying they don’t suspect foul play. Was this sensitivity to the family of a possible suicide, or stonewalling about a type of death that sets minority communities on edge? Watch this space: Mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George has now demanded an investigation.

Soft on Crime! D.C. cops wanted to arrest U.S. Rep. Cory Mills on assault charges — but were stymied by the city's top prosecutor at the the time, Trump appointee Ed Martin, according to ugly public records acquired by the Washington Post. Notable: After a year of GOP allegations that the District won't let cops go after criminals, this story of the Trump administration getting in the way of authorities who were looking into a Republican ally represents another wrinkle of the capital's not-quite-self-governing legal status.

Golf Digest. Trump’s plans to remake D.C.’s public golf courses are in “rough legal shape,” Law360 reports, because the government skipped key regulatory steps. The administration faces a lawsuit from preservationists and local duffers who claim the president wants to hijack the courses for the super rich. Only in D.C.: The budget-minded golfers’ legal team includes the legendary Beltway power-lawyer Abbe Lowell.

Finally: I see lots of excitement about the burgundy-and-gold Metro train wraps sponsored by the Commanders, who last week rebooted their uniforms to evoke their glory days. Apologies for party-pooping, but when you think about it, it’s less glorious: The franchise used to dominate Washington life, and now they’re advertising on Metro like some kind of desperate defense contractor?