Offensive. Vulgar. Divisive. Steeped in corruption. Flouting laws and regulation. Showing utter contempt for the needs of the American people to benefit an elite few.
It is almost impossible to imagine a more fitting monument to President Donald J. Trump than the giant, gilded middle finger that will soon rise from the rubble of the East Wing of the White House.
The billionaire president, who has devoted his second term to providing tax cuts, regulatory gifts and sweetheart deals to his billionaire constituents, is building a glittering ballroom no one needs or wants. There, America’s elite and their pals visiting from around the world can sip champagne while, across our country, hungry families lose their food aid and their healthcare, debts pile up and we all lose basic rights.
Pick your historical metaphor: Nero fiddling in his gold-encrusted palaces. The Bourbon kings of France living in luxury while their subjects starved. The white marble and gold of Ashgabat in Turkmenistan, built by a kleptocrat dictator so afraid of his people that the city is largely empty, one of the modern world’s stark tributes to vainglorious leadership.
I could also mention Adolf Hitler’s obsession with monumentalist architecture, too, but wouldn’t that be inflammatory? Well, not if I were a young Republican, a MAGA appointee or a Democratic candidate with an SS tattoo on my chest, it turns out. Surely, JD Vance or some pod bro somewhere would come to my defense and say, as we seem to be saying more often these days, “What’s a little Naziism between friends?”
As illuminating as historical echoes might be, Trump’s master builder moment—which also includes remodeling the Oval Office to look like Liberace’s boudoir and constructing a giant triumphal arch because, well, kings and emperors build triumphal arches—comes at a tellingly inauspicious moment.
While bulldozers raze the historic East Wing in its entirety, the U.S. government is shut down. Trump has somehow found a way to pay demolition men and architects, but not the men and women who are working to serve the country and provide vital services.
On the issue of funding the project to the tune of some $300 million, Trump at first said he would pay for it himself—but of course, that was never going to happen. He has been famous for decades for making promises and then not delivering.
Then he said he might pay for it using the money he was demanding the Department of Justice pay him as compensation for its wholly legal and totally justified investigations into his mishandling of national secrets and his alleged efforts to undo the results of the 2020 election. But that won’t happen either, certainly not if there is the slightest chance he can pocket that money.
Rather, a bunch of fat cat donors and corporations will pay for the ballroom for the same corrupt reason that they paid for his inauguration or gave in to his groundless lawsuits and settled for big bucks: Because cash on the barrelhead is the best way to get the attention of this administration.
(In the interest of fairness, I would add that generally this is true for all administrations and that money is the toxin that is killing American democracy. Both parties. All three branches of government.)
Some are outraged that Trump has ignored laws and traditions requiring that tearing down a historic structure or building some tacky new tribute to excess be reviewed and approved by various committees. But of course, just as any monument to Trump would not be complete without money from billionaires seeking favors, neither would it truly capture the spirit of the man unless it was contemptuous of the law and process.
Trump’s arguments that other presidents have made renovations at the White House is true but misleading. In terms of square footage and cost, Trump’s remodeling of what once was thought of as “the people’s house” is the largest and most costly by far. His assertion that people have been trying to have a ballroom built for 150 years ignores the fact that, well, for virtually all that period no one actually felt the need to have a ballroom built.
To distract from the controversy concerning the project, the White House has recently posted online a timeline of “Major Events” designed to suggest that big construction projects at the White House are fairly commonplace. However, it’s not only misleading, it’s outrageously scurrilous.
Among the pictures of past renovations are gratuitous entries like the “Bill Clinton Scandal,” a “Muslim Brotherhood Visit” (with a picture of Obama in a turban), “Cocaine Discovered” (with a picture of a strung-out Hunter Biden in a bathtub) and “Trans Day of Visibility.”
Think Trump’s lackeys are aware this project is highly controversial and deeply offensive to many people for all the reasons cited above? You betcha. And nothing could confirm that more resoundingly than their lies, lack of transparency and outrageous efforts at distraction.
Some on social media have suggested that the ballroom should be named after Jeffrey Epstein because they think it is an effort to distract from that ever-present scandal. But that misses the point. The most ignominious label that could be affixed to this project is also the one that is most appropriate. Call it the Trump Ballroom and everyone will know precisely what that means.
Although, call it that and it is highly unlikely that after Trump leaves office—which will eventually happen, whether he likes it or not—anyone will want to use it ever again. It will end up sitting as empty and useless as past monuments to other autocrats from other eras… or as the man himself.
The post Opinion: Why One Name Should Go On That Ballroom—And It’s Not Epstein’s appeared first on The Daily Beast.
