Icon Maker

"Washington Crossing the Delaware" by Larry Rivers (1953)

Trump is, if nothing else, an icon maker. That is his brilliance. The first thing he does is to create an image which in his case involves raising the flag at Iwo Jima. George Washington was an Icon maker. "Washington Crossing the Delaware" inspired the painting by Emmanuel Leutze, appropriated by Larry Rivers. There are the icons of the Greek Orthodox Church, Christ's Manger, Moses smashing the Ten Commandments and Pompeii. Hearing a train whistle far away is another of icon. Thomas Matthew Crooks joins John Hinckley Jr in the parade of attempted assassins. Then there are Lee Harvey Oswald, Sirhan Sirhan, Mark David Chapman. Crooks, 20 years old and two years out of high school was a registered Republican who would have voted for the first time in his life.