When it comes to foreign policy, the Trump administration has made a point of making nice with modern-day autocrats such as Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. A new draft executive order obtained by Architectural Record called “Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again” indicates that the Trump administration may be finding an architectural common ground with autocratic regimes of yesteryear too.

The order would revise the “Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture,” written by Senator Patrick Moynihan and issued by the General Services Administration in 1962, to dictate that “the classical architectural style shall be the preferred and default style” for upgrades or construction of new federal buildings, according to Architectural Record. It’s an odd proposition on two levels: both to decree an official style and to insist that that style be classical, the favored genre of the Third Reich. As architecture critic Paul Goldberger tweeted, “It’s what dictatorships do, not democracies.”

The draft order also critiques federal building design of the past half-century, saying that Brutalism and Deconstructivism, two architectural styles that first gained popularity in the 1950s and 1980s respectively, fail to meet one of the 1962 guiding principles, that federal buildings “provide visual testimony to the dignity, enterprise, vigor, and stability of the American government.”

While the current GSA may interpret contemporary architectural styles to be in violation of the guiding principles written in 1962, its actual authors did not. The next sentence of the original text reads: “Major emphasis should be placed on the choice of designs that embody the finest contemporary American architectural thought.” The second point of that 1962 architectural policy reads: “The development of an official style must be avoided. Design must flow from the architectural profession to the Government, and not vice versa.”

By prescribing classical architecture, it seems the current administration seeks to impose a value set rather than build from one. It’s worth noting that David Insinga, GSA’s chief architect and the director of the Design Excellence Program, reportedly resigned from his position last week. (Fast Company attempted to contact Insinga for comment, but he could not be reached.)

Neoclassical architectural style was adopted in the 18th century to harken back to ancient Greece and Rome; at the time, it spoke to democratic and Enlightenment principles. But its context shifted in the 20th century as it became the preferred style of autocrats during World War II; most notably, Hitler leaned on classical architecture to wield power and as a motivator of nationalist pride harkening back to the past. Hitler tapped chief architect Albert Speer to design classical monuments meant to embody the Reich and inspire awe; examples were the sprawling Nuremberg rally grounds and the gargantuan “Volkshalle” building, which was never built.

“When the Nazis came to power, Hitler, like other dictators before him (and certainly Mussolini), saw architecture as the grand statement of power, the permanency of the ideals, ideas, and ideologies that the regime put forth,” says Steven Heller, co-chair of the MFA design program at the School of Visual Arts, who has written more than 100 books on graphic design and graphic design history, noting that Hitler was a failed artist and amateur architect. “He preferred neoclassical monumentalism as symbolizing power and the 1,000-year Reich.”