An analyst on Monday ripped President Donald Trump, calling him "MAGA Saddam" and "Donald Antoinette" as he blasted Trump's recent moves to fund his ballroom as "legalized bribery."
In a conversation between Zeteo founder Mehdi Hasan and Aswin Soobsang, senior political correspondent, the two discussed whether Americans actually care about the construction of the White House ballroom and the destruction of the East Wing, as well as how taxpayers will ultimately foot the bill.
"I think this story is breaking through, and it's not that it's a ballroom being built or not being built. Like you said earlier, what the f--- do we care if the White House has a ballroom? Right now. It's like it's the White House. It's the American presidential palace. Maybe it should have a ballroom. Maybe it shouldn't," Soobsang said.
A Trump official once even said that "Trump wanted a Saddam-style, what would look like a Saddam-style ballroom," Hasan said.
And although the look is something to laugh at, the two point out that there's something more revealing to consider.
"It's a running joke inside the Trump West Wing right now that he is erecting the palace of quote unquote 'MAGA Saddam'," Soobsang said. "If you look at how garish and gold it looks right now. But the bigger story here is that he is devoting a ton of energy, manpower, resources, like everybody in the government who is working on this right now and fixated on it for weeks and soon to be many weeks going forward is doing it on the taxpayer dime."
Trump and his administration claim it's paid for by donors, but that's not the full picture.
"...The broader governmental effort is a taxpayer-funded one. Karoline Levitt claiming it's his big priority last week is what he's focused on. And of course, even if it's donor-funded, how corrupt is that? You can now apparently — you can anonymously donate to the ballroom fund," Hasan said.
"I mean, this man has worked out how to milk people in every possible way," Hasan said. "We now have a presidency where legalized bribery is available to not just domestic donors, but foreign donors, whether it's giving money to Trump's crypto company, whether it's giving money to Trump's presidential library that he's already getting lawsuits to pay out to. Good luck... It's all just a way of shaking people down."
While Americans are suffering amid the government shutdown, a volatile economy, and rising prices for cost of living and health care — Trump is focused on construction, he added.
"And this is all happening against the background that if you're a John Q or Jane Q citizen watching this or hearing about it, and you're because of, largely speaking, the way the federal government and Donald Trump's government is approaching these issues, you might have your health care premium spiking dramatically soon," Soobsang said.
"You might be about to lose your food stamps. The economy is still slowly, ever presently imploding in on itself. And the president of the United States is party planning. Yeah, that's what he's doing. This isn't a nothing issue for any other leader of the free world. This would be how out of touch this guy is when inflation and everything else that's wrong about the economy is putting the screws to you," Soobsang added.
"You should have more Donald Antoinette headlines at this moment," Hasan joked.
CNN and Washington Post Roll Over for ‘Donald Antoinette’s’ Ridiculous Ballroom by Mehdi Hasan
On ‘Ask the Editor’, Mehdi and Swin dissect the mainstream media’s Trump-pandering, from the Epstein files to his MAGA-Saddam ballroom. Plus: ICE arresting Sami Hamdi, war with Venezuela, and Mamdani.
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