Donald Trump's planned ballroom, for which he had the White House's East Wing demolished, could actually help Democrats, according to a conservative who opposes Trump.
Columnist Jennifer Rubin — a loyal conservative until Donald Trump came along — wrote on Substack on Thursday in an article called The Hideous Symbol of MAGA Corruption about "how many Americans are deeply disturbed, furious even, about Donald Trump’s bulldozing of the White House to make way for a garish $330M donor-paid ballroom."
"It may not be the most egregious offense of the Trump regime (which has kidnapped people off the streets, sent them to foreign hell holes, and cut off SNAP benefits, among other outrages). It is not even the worst case of corruption, given the estimated $5B or so in wealth Trump and his family have hauled in from (among other sources) foreign buyers of crypto. But the ballroom is the most visible, easily explained, and visually disgusting evidence of Trump’s destruction of our democracy and the public’s ownership of our institutions," according to Rubin.
In fact, she says, the companies and conflicts involved could actually help the Democrats.
"The bottom line is that companies with a 'stunningly wide array of interests before the federal government' from industry specific items to all-encompassing interests (e.g. tax policy) have feathered the president’s nest by indulging his pathetic Louis XIV aspirations to construct a garish ballroom that substitutes a Trump monstrosity for a piece of American architectural history," she wrote. "That may not be the worst of it. For one thing, we do not know exactly how much each is giving. Far worse, some of the donors remain anonymous. Are they pardoned felons? Lawmakers? Foreign governments? We do not know."
This, she argues, is where the other side should take some action. She argues that "Democrats need not remain silent."
"In the wake of an election in which Republicans’ corruption and scorn for the average American people launched a blue tsunami, they can help set the stage for the midterms... Democrats could devise a series of proposals, bring votes to the floor, and lay down markers both to embarrass Republicans and to make clear to the donors that when Democrats come to power the influence-peddlers’ participation in the selling of American government with come with serious, expensive consequences," she wrote.
"For starters," according to Rubin, "Democrats at every turn should demand hearings or use existing oversight hearings to ask critical questions to uncover the identities of all donors, the amounts given, the means by which regulatory controls were sidestepped, the historical and environmental damage, the means by which funds were solicited (and what promises/conditions were placed on them), the costs of demolition and maintenance, and any other pertinent facts (e.g., how is the bidding on the project to be conducted?)."
She then adds, "Any evidence of illegality can be fully investigated and prosecuted in the next Democratic administration."