Originally posted October 23rd, 2025.
Much Ado About Nothing
Three weeks after the government shutdown, along with 11-12 failed Senate votes later, what do we read? President Trump is “destroying the White House.” That’s according to California governor Gavin Newsom. In other breaking news, Hillary Clinton claims that the White House “is not his (Trump’s) house, it belongs to the people.”
“Kilroy Was Here”
As Jeffrey Blehar notes in NRO, since everyone else seems to be chiming in, he might as well add to the cacophony. To be clear, the Trump ballroom is not even close to revamping Peter’s Summer Palace.
You can redecorate the interior of the White House all you want during the next Democratic administration, but you’re not going to knock down a brand-new ballroom — especially one the White House actually needs far more than it needs the nondescript block of administrative office space that was the East Wing.
Because the White House needed a ballroom, honestly. Once it is built, people will forget they were ever angry about its construction.
Neither DC nor the White House is being wrecked, Governor Newsom. Donald Trump is not “literally destroying the White House”. And please, Hillary, stop embarrassing yourself and admit you are wrong. For the moment, it is Donald Trump’s house, and even those who did or did not vote for Hillary Clinton. You remember them, don’t you, Ms. Hillary? The people? Some of them were the deplorables who voted against your residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?
Last summer, President Trump announced plans to build the White House State Ballroom. The official announcement described it as “a much-needed and exquisite addition of 90,000 total square feet of ornately designed and carefully crafted space, with a seated capacity of 650 people — a significant increase from the 200-person seated capacity in the East Room of the White House.”
Included in the announcement: “… the site of the new ballroom will be where the small, heavily changed, and reconstructed East Wing currently sits. The East Wing was constructed in 1902 and has been renovated and changed many times, with a second story added in 1942.”
Reportedly, the Treasury Department “instructed employees not to share photos of the demolition of parts of the White House’s East Wing after images of construction equipment dismantling the facade of the building went viral online.”
Whether or not Treasury Department employees share pictures, it’s not like a major construction project on the White House grounds can be easily hidden. Recently, Trump discussed the project while the White House hosted the Louisiana State University baseball team.
Inserting Both Feet
Maria Shriver posted a picture and lamented, “This breaks my heart, and it infuriates me. Hundreds of millions of dollars to build a new ballroom.”
First, those “hundreds of millions of dollars” — $250 million — are privately donated; no taxpayer dollars will be used for the construction of the new ballroom, report National Review. Earlier this month, Trump hosted a dinner in the East Room of the White House to thank the donors.
