As Donald Trump stirs up more national outrage over his demolition of the White House‘s East Wing, one of his favorite dinner guests is brushing off the controversy.
On Friday’s episode of Real Time, Bill Maher gave a flippant response when guest panelist Michael Steele mourned “the destruction of a symbol of this government” after the Trump administration had the historic structure torn down to make way for his ballroom.
“You’re talking about the White House? Oh, it’s a building, Mike. It’s a building.”
Steele argued that Trump “tore it down without accountability,” explaining, “It’s a building, maybe to you, but to a lot of Americans, it’s not. And I’m gonna tell you, as a young kid growing up in D.C., when my daddy took me by that building, it meant something to me as a 10-year-old. It meant something to me to grow up in a town where everybody in this country came and protested, and cried and screamed and laughed. So, that building, for me, was my childhood.”
Maher rebutted, “First of all, I agree. I said, he should have gotten the permits. But that’s how he does things. I agree. But it is just a building … that part of the building wasn’t always there. Presidents do change the buildings. Nixon put in a bowling alley, Obama made the tennis court a basketball court. I can’t get this mad about everything, Mike, I just can’t.”
“The symbolism is, he’s not leaving. That’s what bothers me about it. Who puts in a giant ballroom if you’re leaving?” he added. “OK, but that’s the issue, not the building.”
Panelist Kate Bedingfield argued that the destruction is an example of Trump’s behavior being “impulsive, reckless, driven by his own desire for self-agrandizement.”
“If this was the only thing he had done on that front, then I would give you, ‘it’s just a building,’” said Bedingfield. “But it’s not. It’s part of a manner of governing that’s tearing at some of the institutional foundations in this country, and that’s scary.”
Maher later had to swallow his own words after his writers apparently didn’t get the memo about his lack of concern for the White House demolition, joking on his ‘New Rules’ segment: “Now that President Trump is redecorating the White House, building a ballroom and hosting brunches at his new rose garden club…”
After an uncomfortable pause, Maher continued, “He has to start a new series called Queer Eye for the Authoritarian Guy.”
Photos taken on Thursday appeared to show that the Trump administration has not only torn down the East Wing—which was built in 1902 and renovated in 1942—but the East Colonnade, which included a movie theater that has hosted screenings for decades.
The White House has defended the project, noting that it is being privately funded and that many presidents of the past have made alterations. The area is being cleared to make way for Trump’s planned $300 million ballroom, with a list of corporate donors including Comcast and Amazon providing funds.
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