The garish and self-indulgent buildings developed by Republican candidate Donald Trump reveal a lot about how he would run America if elected president tomorrow, says US architect Doug Staker in this Opinion column.

As an architect trained in the ways of contemporary thought, it was hard for me to take Donald Trump seriously as a candidate. To me his architecture ? let's call it Trumpitecture ? was always a collection of unsightly, tasteless eyesores.
Because of my own distaste for the Trump Tower in any of its iterations, I did not understand how anyone could take him seriously in any other facet of life; yet I reluctantly admit that architectural taste might not be everyone's primary filter for leadership potential. In hindsight, however, I believe there is no truer voice in the Trump symphony than his under-analysed architectural portfolio. Trump has built his name on his special combination of blandness and opulence, with complete blindness toward anything that makes architecture with a capital A. Architecture is like a revered founding father. It can rise above its time and leave a lasting legacy. It marks a city for generations, and has the power to affect its environment in positive, memorable ways, to create an identity reflecting the values of those who interact with the environment it shapes.
There is no truer voice in the Trump symphony than his under-analysed architectural portfolio
Architecture has the potential to inspire, uplift, and transcend; the creation ...