Comedian Bill Maher has said that he’s “kind of jealous” of President Donald Trump’s unimpeded and rapidly bloating White House ballroom project.
“As the guy who took three years to get my f***ing solar panels in, I’m kind of jealous,” the host quipped on Friday’s episode of Real Time With Bill Maher.
“I’m kind of in awe because I live in L.A., where you need 13 permits to put a bird feeder on your deck,” Maher continued.
This week, images emerged of heavy machinery razing the entire 123-year-old East Wing of the White House, including its historic trees and gardens.
“He says he won’t stop until he finds those Epstein files,” Maher joked about the destruction.
Displaying a snap of an excavator tearing through the building, Maher said the photos needed to be filed under “metaphors that are almost too obvious.”
In July, Trump described his plan for the ballroom as one that wouldn’t “interfere with the current building. It will be near it, but not touching it,” he explained. At the time, he estimated the project would cost $100 million, which he would pay for personally.
The project is now expected to cost $300 million, according to estimates given by the White House this week. Trump has suggested he may pay for it with money he has demanded from his own Justice Department as compensation for legal battles he fought during Joe Biden’s presidency.
Donors, including tech giants, defense contractors, and crypto entrepreneurs, are also pitching in for the 90,000-foot space.
“Did I mention the [national] debt has hit $38 trillion?” Maher said in reference to the opulence of the Mar-a-Lago-style installation that Trump has suggested he may name after himself.
“President’s have changed the White House in little ways before but, you know, they always got approval from Congress, permits. This is no permits,” Maher joked. “As a constitutionalist, I must say, I find this appalling.”
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