> The order is not targeted toward actually changing the design of federal buildings. Rather, it is being used to attack modern art and suppress the ideals that it stands for.

Strongly disagree: it's both. The makers of the order, and its supporters, really do care about architectural styles and they really do think modern buildings are ugly.

The essay-writer is assuming that their political opponents are acting in bad faith, but that kind of suspicious conspiratorial thinking does little to help understanding here.