In Front of Our Noses: L’État, c’est moi
Politico reports: State Department to release limited edition ‘America250’ passports with Trump’s face.
“As the United States celebrates America’s 250th anniversary in July, the State Department is preparing to release a limited number of specially designed U.S. passports to commemorate this historic occasion,” State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in a statement. He added that the passports will have “the same security features that make the U.S. Passport the most secure documents in the world.”
The new passports are expected to be released in July as part of the Trump administration’s America250 initiative that includes a UFC fight at the White House and a Grand Prix street race in Washington, D.C.
The Department of State reported this on Twitter earlier today:
This is not normal.
Let me repeat: this is not normal.
Sitting presidents in normal democracies do not plaster their name and likeness on official documents and buildings. They are not supposed to be symbols of the country.
Nor are they supposed to be avatars of a major national celebration.
Trump is branding the United States with his name and likeness. This is personalistic dictator stuff.
Thank goodness I already got my passport renewed about a month ago. Can you imagine being stuck with Trump’s face in your passport for a decade?
I am not even going to get into the Grand Prix and the UFC fight, but let’s just say neither screams “America’s 250th birthday.”
Shameless, truly shameless! A direct contradiction of the meaning of America.
It’s a great opportunity to lose, misplace, accidentally shred your passport, or forget to take it out of your pocket when you do the wash, or have it stolen.
Now imagine you’re transgender. In addition to having the wrong gender marker on your passport, you also have to carry the picture of your oppressor.
@Kathy: That’s an excellent, and additionally infuriating, point.
The memes didn’t take long.
Limited edition. Presumably that means that I have to pay to get a “special” passport, but most of them will be vanilla.
Australian coins and some bank notes have always included an image of the head of state, namely the Queen or King of Australia. They’re not elected politicians so the practice doesn’t have any political implications. Any proposal to include the prime minister du jour would be extremely controversial.
One of the many problematic aspects of the US constitution is that the head of the federal government represents one side of an antagonistic two-party system while the head of state is supposed to represent the entire nation, but they are one and the same person.
@Michael Cain:
That would be to the good.
@Ken_L:
Problem in the Taco reign is he doesn’t propose. He just orders it done.