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I said earlier that Trump had a love-hate relationship with Europe, and I meant it: He’s a lot closer to the befuddled accidental-tourist character in plaid shorts and flip-up sunglasses, gazing open-mouthed at the Changing of the Guard or wondering why there aren’t tours of the Bastille, than the smooth assassin out of a jewelry commercial.

It is claimed one of the original flip-up seats moves of its own accord, as if a ghostly cinema-goer were sitting down to watch a film.

“A flip-up desk can transform the room from a work zone to a yoga studio for one in a quick minute,” she says.

The long timeline may also jeopardize the effectiveness of the project: the flip-up flood gates, for instance, only provide protection against the sea-level rise that will occur by 2050, which could make them inadequate as little as two decades after they are completed.

Much of the money for the flip-up flood walls arrived six years ago thanks to another Obama-era grant program that funded novel resilience strategies, but the berm around the Seaport will cost around $3.6 billion, according to the city's latest estimates, and will take more than a decade to complete.