A demolition crew takes apart the facade of the East Wing of the White House, where U.S. President Donald Trump's proposed ballroom is being built, in Washington, D.C., U.S., October 21, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Historian and journalist Anna Applebaum told MSNBC on Tuesday that a lot of President Donald Trump's corruption might be blatant, but most Americans aren't paying attention. That isn't the case for the bulldozing of the White House, however.
In the midst of a government shutdown and an increasingly difficult economy, exacerbated by Trump's tariffs that are raising costs, the president initiated the construction of a 90,000 square foot ballroom at the White House, a project that entails demolishing parts of the existing building. Trump had previously promised that the historic structure of the White House wouldn't be touched.
However, on Monday afternoon, Trump took a wrecking ball to the White House, leading to outrage and fury among Americans.
The first thing Applebaum pointed out is just how massive the ballroom is and that it dwarfs the actual White House itself, "which is actuallya rather small and elegantoriginal 18th-century building."
"And, so, the idea that we're building this Marie Antoinette kind of ridiculous, unnecessary, luxurious project at a moment when, as you say, the government is shut down, the economy is slowing, people are paying tariffs for no reason, except that Donald Trump feels that it's a good idea for them to pay tariffs. And so everything costs more," she said.
"It's one of the great contrasts of the moment. I am actually genuinely surprised that there aren't more Republicans speaking up about this, because this is something that, you know, we were talking just a minute ago about why Americans don't notice the corruption," Applebaum continued. "This is the kind of thing that they will notice, you know, as an enormous kind of Mar-a-Lago style building goes up next to, again, a place that we find familiar. That is something that belongs to all of us."
Americans will see that contrast, she said, of what they can afford and what the government is willing to do for them, while Trump is building a big, gold building for parties.