All posts tagged "east wing"

Devoted aide championed Trump's pet project opposed by Melania: biographer

A biographer detailed when devoted aide Natalie Harp began to emerge in President Donald Trump's circle and tied her to one of his pet projects.

During an episode of Inside Trump's Head, author Michael Wolff said that he started hearing Harp's name during the 2024 campaign, and he credited her as one of the minds behind the East Wing teardown and the push for a White House ballroom.

"People within the White House say that Natalie was one of the people who argued for the ballroom and getting rid of the East Wing," Wolff said.

"Wow!" co-host Joanna Coles said. "Natalie was really big on the ballroom and getting rid of the East Wing."

"People see this around Trump, that she is working," Wolff said. "She has worked to put herself in the position that she is the woman closest to Donald Trump."

Harp has recently found herself in the spotlight after Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) called Trump out in comments, saying, "He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the emir of Qatar."

According to Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan's Regime Change, Trump's team knew that First Lady Melania Trump wouldn't be happy with the demolition of the East Wing. Wolff confirmed in the podcast, "It's really Natalie versus Melania," and that he first started hearing Harp's name in 2024.

"During the 2024 campaign, people began to talk to me because they were specifically worried about this woman, Natalie Harp," Wolff said. "No one knew exactly what she was doing there. No one knew why she was there, but she was assuming more and more authority in the campaign."

Wolff described it as "both a worry and an annoyance to many people, and so that's one of the motivations for people to speak to reporters."

Disaster as Trump's 'sinking' golf course renovation project reaches sand trap: report

President Donald Trump's plan to renovate a Washington, D.C. golf course has taken a hit even before the first tee shot, according to a new report on Tuesday.

Trump had announced construction would start on Sept. 1 at the municipal golf course at East Potomac Park, which is also known as Hains Point, but several issues have derailed the project so far, Mother Jones reported.

"Water from the Potomac River floods its sidewalks and drowned the city’s dreams of a modern swimming facility," according to Mother Jones. "Now, it threatens to wash out Trump’s golf fantasy and leave behind a disaster that will make the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool look like a minor embarrassment."

Trump wanted to rush the build, but he might have missed a "glaringly obvious flaw in his plans," Mother Jones reported.

Rebecca Miller, the executive director of the DC Preservation League, an organization that has sued the Trump administration over its golf course project, put it bluntly.

"Let’s be honest," Miller told Mother Jones. "The island is sinking."

Construction at the location could cause serious water issues.

"The existing East Potomac golf course is basically flat, making it perfect for beginning and amateur players," Mother Jones reported. "But championship courses require such technical features as deep bunkers, water hazards, and dramatic slopes. Because of the park’s high water table, the only way Trump could create those sorts of enhancements is to bring in tons of new fill to pile on top of the existing land mass, which only will create more problems."

The project could ultimately backfire, causing flooding across the National Mall, specifically at the Jefferson Memorial, which was just secured by a new $100 million taxpayer-funded seawall.

US District Court Judge Ana Reyes refused to block further work on the golf course, but she made clear she had doubts about Trump's intentions, according to Mother Jones. In July, Reyes ordered the administration to develop a plan for keeping the court regularly informed before any bulldozers arrived.

"I don't want another demolished East Wing," Reyes said. "I don't want another demolished Reflecting Pool."

People opposing the project warn it could end up like the swimming pool plan that never came to be.

"This is a municipal site," Miller said. "This is not Pebble Beach, and it doesn’t need to be."

'Seems like a bad thing': Arsenic-laced dirt fight erupts on Trump's public golf course

President Donald Trump is embroiled in an arsenic-laced dirt fight — and opponents say his administration is fighting dirty, reports show.

The Trump administration is refusing to allow testing on soil it dumped on a public golf course in Washington, D.C. despite National Park Service findings the dirt contains arsenic and lead, according to new reporting from the Wall Street Journal.

The East Potomac Golf Links, where the administration plans to build a major golf championships facility, has been topped with dirt from the East Wing demolition where Trump wants to build a ballroom, the Journal reported.

Now opponents led by the D.C. Preservation League are suing the Department of the Interior to stop the project, according to reporting by NBC News.

They claim dirt dumped on the links by the Trump administration will hurt golfers and the environment, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The National Park Service tested the dirt and reported that while no asbestos was detected, there appeared to be toxins such as arsenic and lead the Journal reported.

The D.C. Preservation League is now asking a federal judge to allow it to test the dirt itself.

In a hearing this month, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said that she didn't understand why the Trump administration wouldn't allow for more testing of the dirt.

"If there isn't a problem with it, who cares?" Reyes asked. The judge reportedly added, "there appears to be a lot of arsenic in the soil 'and that seems like a bad thing.'"

Melania resisted Trump's White House overhaul only to end up 'very unhappy': commentators

First Lady Melania Trump fought against Trump's overhaul of the White House and lost, according to commentators.

During an episode of the Daily Beast Podcast, host Joanna Coles and Hugh Dougherty, the executive editor of The Daily Beast, went over more revelations in the book Regime Change, an account of the Trump White House by journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan.

Last year, Trump paved over the Rose Garden. According to Dougherty, the book reveals that the First Lady's team relayed that she was "very unhappy" with the changes, and only secured a few compromises, like getting Trump to keep the rose bushes.

"It turns out he wanted to pave over the whole lot," Dougherty said, relaying details from the book. "He wanted the roses gone as well."

A similar scene unfolded with the demolition of the East Wing, which Trump tore down to make way for a ballroom. Trump's team knew "that this was not going to make the First Lady happy, but it still went ahead," according to Dougherty.

"I think there's a lot to digest about their marriage," Dougherty said, adding that he has questions about "what came back from the First Lady's team? Is that how they communicate? There's lots more to know."

Coles and Dougherty also talked about details that came up in the book about Melania and Trump's separate bedrooms and descriptions of how White House staff "have to clean up because he leaves discarded detritus from his fast food habit on the floor," Dougherty said.

Trump admin caught dumping toxic East Wing debris at historic golf course: report

A new report found that toxic materials from the White House's East Wing demolition were dumped at a historic golf course, according to The Associated Press on Tuesday.

A Virginia engineering firm report, which was shared by the National Park Service, revealed that toxic debris, which included metals, PCBs, pesticides, petroleum byproducts and other chemicals, was found "at levels above laboratory reporting limits in soil" at the East Potomac Golf Links. This is the same course that President Donald Trump has said he plans to renovate.

"The park service began dumping debris from the East Wing onto the golf course in October, and more than 30,000 cubic yards (810,000 cubic feet) of excavated soil had been transported to the site as of last month, the report by Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. said. The report was requested by the park service," AP reported.

The Trump administration was facing lawsuits from the nonprofit DC Preservation League. The organization has argued that the Trump administration has unlawfully dumped the potentially hazardous material, in addition to its challenge of the Trump administration's takeover of the golf course about two miles away from the White House.

"A spokesperson for the Interior Department, which oversees the park service, said in an email Tuesday that the soil removed from the White House 'was tested multiple times by multiple parties, and this project passed all standards set by law,'" according to AP.

'God awful!' Trump's 'hideous' ballroom greeted with explosion of negative public comments

Americans have had a lot to say ever since President Donald Trump knocked down the White House's historic East Wing to make way for his ballroom. It turns out that the people have spoken — and they're pretty unhappy with the president's plans.

The Swamp, the Daily Beast's Substack, reviewed 32,000 public comments submitted to the National Capital Planning Commission ahead of the design meeting slated for tomorrow at the commission’s D.C. headquarters. The more than 9,000 pages reveal a common theme, with an overwhelming number of people urging the planning commission to stop the ballroom construction. They instead call for rebuilding the East Wing.

"But the president’s home is also the People’s House—and the people don’t like Trump’s plan to turn it into Dance-a-Lago," The Swamp reported.

The public comments revealed just how people feel about it:

"DO NOT BUILD THIS god AWFUL MONSTERS RIDICULOUS BALLROOM!" One person wrote, using Trump's signature writing style.

"NO GAUDY FAKE GOLD STUFF ALL OVER THE PLACE," another commented.

"Please do whatever is within your power to stop and permanently prevent trump from ruining our White House any further with the hideous ballroom," Karen Centers commented.

"DO NOT ALLOW DONALD J TRUMP OR ANY OTHER FOOL REMODEL,CHANGE,DESTROY REARRANGE, WHATEVER VERBAGE THERE IS TO DESTROY THE 'PEOPLES HOUSE' IT IS NOT HIS! THIS SHOULDN'T EVEN BE A TOPIC,OR DISCUSSION BUT THE CRAZY FOOL IS AT THE WHEEL. THIS IS HISTORY! LEAVE IT ALONE!! THANK YOU!" Donna Cook wrote, also borrowing the same all-caps writing tone as Trump.

"Shame! Shame!" Leesa Shemtov wrote.

MAGA warned it has an expiration date: 'Trumpism will not last'

A New York Times columnist on Tuesday pointed out that MAGA will have its expiration date as President Donald Trump's desire to destroy or rebrand will ultimately be scrubbed when he's gone.

Michelle Cottle described in her column how Trump is on a "renaming crusade" from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to his threats to only release federal funding to complete the rail tunnel under the Hudson River in exchange for naming New York's Penn Station and Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C., after himself. His moves are "aimed not at building a legacy so much as appropriating those of others. He seems to find that approach easier."

But as Cottle explained, Trump's power won't last forever, and neither will his "presidential graffiti." Like many countries that have removed the names of "discredited authoritarians from the public square," Americans can expect this to happen someday in the United States.

"As president, the real estate mogul and self-proclaimed builder of great things has turned out to be not much of a builder at all," Cottle wrote. "He tears stuff down. Occasionally, as with the East Wing of the White House, he destroys something meaningful, with an eye toward replacing it with a bigger, golder version more befitting his imperial tastes. But he seems to lack what it takes to create or even to inspire institutions or monuments built to endure."

His political legacy — the MAGA movement — will likely not outlast him once he's gone.

"Trumpism will not last forever," Cottle wrote. "Elements might endure, but the MAGA movement is at heart a cult of personality unlikely to outlast its singular leader for very long in its existing form. And whenever the fever breaks, America can begin to figure out when and how much of Mr. Trump’s self-honoring to roll back."

The process after Trump will "probably be slow and steady," the writer said.

"Removing presidential graffiti promises to be one of the easier repair jobs," Cottle wrote. "Government agencies, policy programs, democratic norms, the rule of law — Mr. Trump is smearing his grubby fingerprints across so much more than a few edifices. The reconstruction will be long and daunting, especially if we take the opportunity to (with apologies to President Joe Biden) build back better. There are no quick fixes. Pretending otherwise would just lay the groundwork for public disappointment and bitterness."

Ex-GOP insider says Trump plans to bring 'bulldozers' to Kennedy Center 'to hurt people'

Former Republican insider Rick Wilson has a grim outlook for the Kennedy Center.

In his Substack published Friday, the co-founder of the anti-Trump group The Lincoln Project made a stark prediction over how President Donald Trump would handle the performing arts institution — with a tear down.

"I regret to inform you that on July 5th or thereabouts, bulldozers will slam into the Kennedy Center and start destroying it," Wilson wrote.

"Not because Trump has a plan. Not because it needs to be razed," Wilson explained. "Just to hurt people. It’s the same plan as the East Wing; destroy something beloved and replace it with a trashy substitute, a corrupt echo of something better, all while reveling in the same pain he enjoyed as far back as his destruction of the historic facade Bonwit-Teller in Manhattan in 1982."

Trump has renamed the living memorial for President John F. Kennedy as "The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts" without congressional approval. This week he announced plans to close it for two years, citing extensive renovations.

Wilson pointed out the flaws behind Trump's mindset around the location remodel, his aims to secure his legacy and how it would reflect the similar moves he made at the White House's East Wing.

"Trump believes the imaginary D.C. skyline of his dreams will be what remains of him when he’s gone. Like Hitler’s vision of Speer’s Berlin, or Stalin’s fantasy of Moscow, skylines crafted by dictators rarely come to pass, and even when they do, they’re remembered with a sense of shame and longing for what came before," Wilson wrote.

Trump's decision to takeover the Kennedy Center comes as a number of the venue's bookings were cancelled in protest of the Trump administration. A number of performers have decided to nix their partnerships with the location and cancel their Kennedy Center dates, including composer Philip Glass, Béla Fleck, Issa Rae and The Cookers. The Washington National Opera announced it would no longer perform there and hit musical "Hamilton" also decided not to bring its 2026 production run to the historic location.

Trump unveils new rendering of 'glorious' White House ballroom

President Donald Trump on Tuesday debuted a rendering of his "much anticipated White House ballroom."

The Trump administration decided to destroy the White House's historic East Wing to make way for the ballroom, which was estimated to cost more than $300 million. The president has vowed to pay for the project, which has been met with criticism and stalled by several hurdles, with private donations.

Trump shared the announcement on his Truth Social platform.

"This beautiful building will be, when complete, the much anticipated White House Ballroom — The Greatest of its kind ever built! It is a rendering from the Treasury Building, directly across the street, and replaces the very small, dilapidated, and rebuilt many times, East Wing, with a magnificent New East Wing, consisting of a glorious Ballroom that has been asked for by Presidents for over 150 years. Being an identical height and scale, it is totally in keeping with our historic White House. This is the first rendering shown to the Public. If you notice, the North Wall is a replica of the North Facade of the White House, shown at the right hand side of the picture. This space will serve our Country well for, hopefully, Centuries into the future!"

The Trump administration has argued that there could be "national security implications" if the new White House ballroom was not built immediately.

In a motion opposing an injunction to halt the building of a massive White House addition, attorneys for the National Park Service warned there could be "an emergency situation" if the project were paused.

"Defendants have strong arguments for appeal, and the equities and public interest weigh overwhelmingly against suspending construction in the interim," the motion stated.

In December, Trump replaced McCrery Architects with Shalom Baranes Associates.