White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday that President Donald Trump's "main priority" at the moment is constructing a $200 million ballroom addition to the White House.
When she was asked whether Trump had any plans for additional White House renovations, she replied, "Not to my knowledge, no, but he's a builder at heart, clearly. And so his heart and his mind is always churning about how to improve things here on the White House grounds. But at this moment in time, of course, the ballroom is really the president's main priority."
Leavitt possibly only meant "priority" in the narrow sense of what Trump wants to do with the White House, and not government in general — but the ambiguous way she phrased it prompted immediate criticism and attacks from Democratic lawmakers, staffers, and pundits, who seized on her remarks on social media to mean that Trump cares more about adding luxury amenities onto the White House than he does about reopening the federal government, paying millions of civil servants, or restoring health care subsidies to working people.
"Honestly, you can’t make this s--- up," wrote Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to his X account.
"Maybe literally anything else Americans are struggling with could be a priority? Cost of living? Health care? National security? Just a thought," wrote the House Natural Resources Committee Democrats account.
"It's clear national security is not his main priority," wrote the House Homeland Security Committee Democrats account.
"Run this in every single ad next year. Every. Single. One," wrote Democratic House staffer Brian Zilm.
"BREAKING: In a shocking moment, Karoline Leavitt admits that, as Americans are suffering behind high grocery prices and insurance premiums, 'the ballroom is really the president's main priority.' And #RepublicansAreAWOL. Nobody voted for this," wrote the account for Really American PAC.
Tommy Scarangelo, the legislative affairs director for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, simply posted a GIF of the famous "I'm mad as hell and not going to take it anymore" scene from 1976's The Network.