The White House is supposed to be a beacon of power and strength on the global stage, a paragon of democracy standing against all enemies, both foreign and domestic.
Until Trump moved in and decided to demolish that image, because he’s an ingrate who hates America. Trump’s renovations of the People’s House never should’ve happened in the first place, because that’s OUR house, not his. He’s not the owner; we are. He’s a temporary squatter who doesn’t deserve to breathe the air within those glorified halls.
The president is supposed to get Congressional approval before making any major renovations to the White House have to be approved by Congress, but since Trump never listens to anyone, he went ahead and did it anyway.
I burst into tears when I first saw images of what he's done with that ballroom construction, a perfect visual metaphor for Trump’s “bull in a china shop” approach to destroying our government and all of our American norms. How did this happen? I screamed into the social media abyss over and over about how demoralizing that image is, which was his intention all along. How does he get away with something this egregiously treasonous?
Republicans said nothing. NOTHING. Their silence as compliance emboldened him to do the most destruction to the White House since British troops set it on fire during the War of 1812.
They’ve also been vocal supporters of Trump’s Epstein Ballroom Bunker, which no other president ever needed, leading to questions as to why the ground was ever broken for it. Those questions are even more important to ask this week, as a new aerial photo of the grounds caused shockwaves on social media. That ballroom is now bigger than the White House itself, and I don’t understand how anyone is fine with his deliberate vandalization of Washington.
Republicans are infuriatingly silent about this, just like they were when Trump began to tackify the Oval Office with gold-plated crap all over the place as if he looted a clearance sale at a Hobby Lobby in Moscow.
They said nothing when Trump demolished the East Wing of the White House, and we have no idea if the historical artifacts collected by all the First Ladies have been properly preserved. According to the White House Historical Association, a detailed photographic record and a comprehensive 3D/digital scanning project of the East Wing and its surrounding gardens was completed before the wrecking ball was deployed. All of the artifacts were allegedly “carefully removed, cataloged, and placed into curatorial storage” by the White House curator, her staff, and the chief usher.
However, reports from POLITICO have highlighted “ongoing public debate, scrutiny, and speculation regarding the transparency and public accessibility of the stored artifacts.”
So the answer is we probably won’t be able to find out where they are until we have a Democratic president again, unless the next Democratic Congress wants to open an investigation. The House Natural Resources Committee has oversight authority over the Interior Department and federal lands and grounds, and would be the best choice for investigating both the White House ballroom and East Wing demolition.
The current ranking Democrat, Rep. Jared Huffman of California, is poised to take over as Chair, and I’d love to see him open an investigation into everything Trump has done on the White House grounds. Over in the Senate, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee could also look into that. My Senator, Ron “Chutzpah” Wyden (D-OR), currently sits on that Committee and will also be the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee in January, so I think that’s something I should bring up with him the next time I get the chance to chat with him.
But Trump wasn’t done with just demolishing the White House itself, so he also paved over the Rose Garden to make it look like another tacky patio at Mar-A-Lago, just without a pool. And then he turned the South Lawn into a traveling parking lot carnival trailer park. And nothing but cheers from the same racist losers who screamed when Barack Obama built a basketball court, and Michelle Obama planted a vegetable garden.
How was he ever allowed to bring in a construction crew in the first place? There should be a deeper dive into the embarrassment of America’s 250th Birthday celebration, where a UFC cage still sat on the White House lawn after Trump invited sweaty, shirtless men to beat each other up on his birthday. All of this vandalism was a gift to his Daddy Vladdy to make America look as weak as possible on the global stage.
And then there’s Algaegate, aka the Problems With the Reflecting Pool, caused by Trump himself, because he can’t leave things alone and only makes things worse when he tries to “fix” them.
I mean, he hired a pool guy who looked like a Dick Tracy villain, so you can’t tell me he wasn’t trying to make it worse on purpose.
When Democrats start declaring their candidacies in 2028, tearing down that eyesore bunker and restoring the White House to its original glories should be one of their top priorities. In a world that’s now dominated by visuals, the image of the White House matters more than ever. It should never look like the “before” photo on an HGTV show about restoring old homes. Any “improvements” should actually look like they’ve improved our image in the media and on the world stage. You know, like GROWING VEGETABLES AND ROSES IN GARDENS.
Nobody should accept Trump’s deliberate destruction of our White House, and that includes anyone still supporting him. If he truly loved America, he’d have left it standing the way it is out of respect for the office, or would have only added things to beautify the already hallowed grounds. Instead, he’s treating the White House like he’s putting in an ADU behind Mar-a-Lago without paying for any of the permits and stiffing all of the contractors.
There must be accountability.
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