During his second term as US president, Barack Obama joked about the location of his future presidential library. “Some have suggested that we put it in my birthplace but I would rather keep it in the United States,” he said.
     
This gag was at the expense of his eventual successor, Donald Trump, who had done more than anyone else to propagate the fantasy that Obama had been born in Kenya and was therefore ineligible to hold the office of US president. The Obama Presidential Center is now under construction in Chicago. Trump has already proclaimed it as a “disaster”, apparently because of the overhiring of “woke” people and the engagement of insufficient numbers of the “good, hard, tough, mean construction workers that I love” (the Village People thing runs deep).

Trump might believe that it is a bit early to start contemplating his own presidential library. He is only six months into his second term and has yet to rule out seeking a third, whatever the objections of the pettifogging naysayer that is the Constitution of the United States. However, a placeholder website exists (trumplibrary.gov). He also has money to spend, in the form of settlements that he has won against media organisations that have connived to prevent his fellow citizens from fully appreciating the majesty of his rule. There’s Meta, which kicked him off Facebook and Instagram in 2021 for the trifling infraction of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order by force ($25m [€21.5m]); ABC, one of whose presenters outrageously suggested that Trump had committed a sexual assault worse than a court decided that he actually had ($15m [€12.9m]); and Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS, whose show 60 Minutes had committed the unpardonable affront of editing an interview with former vice-president Kamala Harris ($16m [€13.8m], a meagre fraction of the not remotely insane $20bn [€17.2bn] that Trump was demanding).

Under the terms of the settlements, these monies are to be allocated towards the future Trump library. But what will it look like? Reports suggest that a couple of university campuses in Florida have been scouted as potential locations. Hints have also been dropped as to what one of the star attractions will be: the generous and pure-hearted present of the customised Boeing 747 that Trump accepted from Qatar. This is in spite of the purse-lipped resentment of those who grumbled that it was a flagrant bribe, as though Donald Trump of all people could ever be susceptible to such tawdry blandishments.
     
But there is no shortage of other possible exhibits. The classified files that Trump diligently lifted from the White House at the end of his first term for safekeeping in the bathrooms of Mar-a-Lago. The portraits of himself paid for with funds from the Trump Foundation – funds that might otherwise have been squandered on frivolous charitable enterprises. The dozens of expensive gifts from foreign governments that House Democrats allege have never been declared to the State Department as per the footling requirements of the Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act but have been judiciously stored so that they can one day be selflessly shared with the American people. 
     
With the project helmed by Eric Trump and Michael Boulos (Tiffany Trump’s husband), it is very difficult to imagine that the current president’s library, when it opens, will be anything other than a tacky, gaudy folly attached to a gift shop stacked with sweatshop tchotchkes. It might even become the first US presidential library to end up declaring bankruptcy. 
 
Mueller is a contributing editor at Monocle and the host of Monocle Radio’s ‘The Foreign Desk’. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today.

The news cycle moved swiftly on from Israel’s 12-day war with Iran but exiled opponents of the Iranian regime are working hard to keep the world’s attention on the country (writes Alexis Self). On Wednesday, Monocle attended a meeting in the UK’s House of Lords at which the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), a France-based coalition of Iranian dissident groups, presented its “third option” for effecting regime change in Tehran. This strategy rejects conflict (the path taken by Israel) and what it calls appeasement (in the form of a revised US-led nuclear deal) – both of which it says only serve to strengthen the country’s autocrats. Instead, the NCRI offers a 10-point plan that outlines the key principles and beliefs that could lead to a free, democratic Iran.

It espouses commitments to religious freedom, gender equality, universal suffrage and pluralism. But perhaps its core idea is that regime change can only be achieved by the Iranian people acting in popular revolt. Dowlat Nowrouzi, the UK-based representative for the NCRI, claims so-called resistance units carried out 3,000 operations against “repressive centres” in 2024 and that Iranian society is “closer than ever to toppling the regime”. Many in the West will hope that this is true – the 10-point plan has been endorsed by 34 legislative chambers in Europe and the US, according to the NCRI – while remaining wary of another false dawn in the Islamic republic.

If you’re planning a trip, be sure to consult our redesigned City Guides before departure. The Monocle Concierge’s recommendations, from neighbourhoods and restaurants to ateliers and boutiques, are all there. They can be downloaded onto your device with a neat map, too. If you’re bound for Lisbon, here’s one spot that’s well worth a visit.

Café de São Bento, São Bento
Café de São Bento belongs to a special strain of Lisbon establishments known for their discretion. Away from prying eyes is a world of late-night dining and dimly lit wood-panelled interiors. The restaurant’s bife à Café de São Bento, a succulent sirloin accompanied by hand-cut fries, is reputed to be the best in town. The building is close to Portugal’s parliament, so politicians are not an uncommon sight at lunch. But come dinner, which is served until 01.00, the MPs are replaced by a well-dressed crowd on dates or darting in for a bite after the theatre.

We look at adaptive reuse through two lenses: a blockbuster case in the UK capital and an attempt to get European cities to legislate for less demolition.