Facepalm

Yeah that’s not actually incorrect too badly. Well perhaps the “bound together” bit but like history for the massive systems, yeah, it is somewhat shared. Common law and whatnot. Although Italy definitely doesn’tuse common law anymore so Trump would be better of comparing US to brits in that sense.

I doubt Italy ever used common law as that originated in Medieval England. It's civil law that descents from Roman law (specifically Justinian's codification of it). Since civil law is way more common around the world most countries have more in common with Rome than the US (or other Anglo countries) do.

You are right however that trying to portray the US as a modern 'Rome' is not a Trump thing but common American propaganda.

To keep this in context, this was a softball discussion with Trump from 2019 where he made some stupid throwaway comment about some supposed commonalities between the USA and Italy. If this annoys you THIS BADLY I don't know what to say. Pick like any of the 50 things Trump did this week and they are more relevant than this trashy article.

A wise man once told me "you must choose your battles" and for me, this is one of those times. This is such low stakes stuff compared to all the other crap he is doing. Don't let some lazy journalist distract you with this crap today. Look at some ACTUAL nasty things going on, like Trump talking about reducing Social Security. Save your rage for when it matters. If you let every lazy article that misquotes Trump rustle your jimmies like this, it's going to be wildly unproductive.

you read my mind, was just editing my previous comment when you sent this

the Roman legislation principles is the foundation for all modern counties with a court, parliament and executive power

The Roman consul and senate are nominatively similar to modern parliaments. But their functions were radically different. You don't have MPs and Senators obtaining their positions by leading armies of conquest abroad and bringing back slave captives to be tributed to the imperial core. You don't have civil wars to decide the next President or a pagan faith that places the nation's political leadership in the pantheon of occupied territories at sword point. You don't have a single city's local residents comprising the near-totality of the national body politic.

The American fumbling fathers event went so far as to copy many parts of it.

The iconography. Not the function. The actual political system was based on local colonial government organizations built on the back of the founding compacts of the first settlers. Local assemblies and mayoralities and governorships were features of European colonial rule, not Roman republicanism. State assembles and a national legislature/executives were features of Dutch protestant joint-stock company boards/executives not Roman dictatorships. Courts were based on the English Common-Law system not Roman Codes.

FFS, early American politicians knew jack shit about Roman civilization. They were working off of pseudohistory largely invented during the era of Charlemagne and passed telephone-style through editorialized written and oral histories for the next 1400 years. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison looked at the French Catholic aesthetic, which sought to invoke Roman art and architecture, and cribbed it to appeal to his snobby know-nothing American Protestant peers. Also, a ton of Freemason wink-wink shit. That's why they were putting pyramids and fasces on all their early works.

And much of the architecture was inspired or copied from Palladio. So toy get that neoclassical look that is the hallmark of DC

That's absolutely true. Although the real neoclassical look of DC wasn't really the focus of the city until the 19th century, because that shit was expensive to build and you needed Lincoln's greenbacks and the industrial revolution machinery to complete big iconic construction projects.

But it was all aesthetics, no substance. A bunch of ionic column toppers does not a Roman political system make.

He did not. He read of a prewritten speech tying the US to the cultural history of Italy. Pretty tame stuff