“It’s hard to imagine a more fitting image” of Donald Trump’s second term than last week’s photographs of bulldozers demolishing the East Wing of the White House, Matt Ford wrote in The New Republic. These images serve as a perfect symbol of the administration’s destructive agenda.
A public building that forms part of a national historical site has been razed to make way for a “gaudy” 90,000-square-foot ballroom where Trump can “hang out with his rich friends.” Back in July, the president assured the public that the ballroom wouldn’t interfere with the current White House structure, said Steve Benen on MSNBC.
“It’ll be near it but not touching it and pays total respect to the existing building, which I’m the biggest fan of,” Trump declared. Now, however, he dismisses the East Wing, saying it was “never thought of as being much.” Trump feels entitled to make these choices because he regards these national treasures “as his own.”
### Hysterical Nonsense?
“Get a grip, people,” said National Review. All this talk of Trump “destroying” the White House is hysterical nonsense. He’s simply replacing some 1940s-era offices with a function room. Changes have been made to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue throughout its history.
The West and East Wings were built in 1902. The Oval Office was added in 1909 and moved in 1934. The central residence was completely gutted and reconstructed between 1948 and 1952. Successive presidents have sought to improve the property — Franklin D. Roosevelt installed an indoor pool; Harry S. Truman added a bowling alley; Barack Obama put in a basketball court.
These updates didn’t “imply incipient fascism” or an “inappropriate sense of permanent ownership,” nor does Trump’s renovation. The White House will benefit from a permanent space for large functions that currently have to be accommodated in tents on the South Lawn. In fact, President Harrison proposed a similar expansion back in 1891.
Yet activists are now calling for Democrat politicians to commit to razing Trump’s ballroom and restoring the status quo ante, Noah Rothman noted in the same magazine. That’s just not going to happen. A future president might strip away some of the ballroom’s garish gold embellishments — which would be no bad thing — but they will undoubtedly keep the space as a whole because of its “immense and objective practical utility.”
### High-Handed Attitude
“There’s nothing wrong in principle with expanding the White House,” said Peggy Noonan. But the context in which this change has been made, and the high-handed manner in which it has been handled, do raise deep concerns about an overmighty executive.
In a republic, power is meant to spring from the people and be mediated by balanced branches of government. But in the past nine months, a “lot of lines seem to have been crossed,” including the deployment of troops in US cities and legal assaults on the president’s perceived enemies.
Trump increasingly resembles Louis XIV, observed Jackie Calmes in the Los Angeles Times. He feels no need to justify extrajudicial killings at sea of those he decrees are Venezuelan narco-terrorists.
When a reporter recently asked, “Who will it be for?” as he showed off the model of a triumphal arch (dubbed the “Arc de Trump”) planned for Washington, he replied simply, “Me.”
When millions of Americans took to the streets a fortnight ago for the “No Kings” rally — perhaps the largest single-day protest in US history — Trump mocked them by posting an AI-generated video of himself bombarding the crowd with excrement from a fighter jet.
He may not care what voters think, but his party certainly should. As one voice urged: “Keep the ‘No Kings’ protests coming right through the elections this November and next.”
https://theweek.com/politics/trumps-white-house-ballroom-a-threat-to-the-republic
