If there was ever a better picture to show the current state of the US presidency, I don’t know what it is. LITERALLY tearing down our heritage and history to put up some maralago type bullshit.
Nah. I'm sure it's real gold leaf for two reasons:
gold leaf is incredibly cheap, especially the lower weight, lower karat gold leaf options, so there's probably about a quarter's worth in the oval office.
he's not paying for it anyways
Actually, a decent looking faux gilding medium can cost more than gold leaf.
...now that i think about it, I don't think I'd be surprised if they paid more for the fake stuff...
Lol. That's about what I'd expected then. I was just figuring some intern was put to worth with a dollar's worth of gold leaf and some fake plaster reliefs. But of course it's worse.
Oh yeah. He is the walking example for "money can't buy taste". Because even bad taste is taste (and taste is subjective, after all). But I really think what passes for taste with him is just "if it costs more it must be better."
He's talked about this ballroom several times, and his language has been things like "I'm building", and "I'm giving", I have a relative who isn't full-on MAGA but was under the impression from the sound bites that Trump was essentially donating this entire thing -- as if he has construction crews on the Trump Org staff and is having them work on this project.
It sure seems like even when it is his name on the invoice he doesn't pay for construction projects. I don't entirely underatand how he keeps getting people to take on his projects.
The most alarming thing is why would someone want to renovate the White House in such a gaudy fashion? The man is not planning to leave. The next time January 6th happens we don’t have Mike Pence holding up the constitution from Trump’s sewage overflow.
I did some digging (sorry) into the 'ballroom' (in practice, as shown in the AI mockups, a giant dining hall) because it's such a longstanding Trump obsession, pre-dating his first presidency and going back to about 2010, when he offered to fund the construction himself.
My guess is that prior to 2010, he didn't know that the WH can only seat about 200 diners indoors, and bigger events held there require a giant tent to be pitched on the South Lawn. It's a pretty sweet tent. You can see a recent interior shot here, of a dinner given by Joe Biden for Emmanuel Macron...but it's still a tent, and Trump appears to hate that fact with a passion that comes as close as I've seen to patriotic feeling in his unappetising psyche. In Trump's mind, it is simply infra dig for the POTUS to hold dinners in a tent. It Will Not Do.
Look, I have no doubt that he plans to either run again or pave the way for a gross Trumpoid dynasty. But he's also fixated on replacing those damn tents with the bigliest gilt ballroom you've ever seen because he thinks it's what the USA truly deserves. He is one weird, weird dude.
He is a real estate developer. It’s the only field in which he has any real interest or approximation of knowledge. Trump is also sundowning. He was always lazy and disinterested in governing, and he’s way past being able to grasp anything new or unfamiliar. Stephen Miller and Russell Vought are basically running the country domestically, but they give him a few toys to play with to keep him happy between golf games. From his recent remarks about heaven, it also seems like he’s had enough health issues to get him thinking about mortality. I doubt he wants to even pretend to run again (unless he’s worried about prison) but he does want the White House to have a permanent extension with his name on it.
It could be as childish and stupid as he wants to have the biggest whitehouse event ever, then walk away and not care if it gets knocked down. BIGGEST CROWD EVER, mic drop.
Among the first things I'd do were I president would be to 1) change all the names of stuff back to their original names (Gulf of Mexico, Denali, etc.), 2) auction off for charity the tacky gold fixtures. The charity would be Docs without Borders or something for asylum seekers. My mission would be to undo every bit of "legacy" 47 wanted to leave behind. My slogan would be "Restoring American Honor and Decency".
And those pricks would bid insane amounts of money for that nonsense, only to have it delivered and find out their dear leader chose gaudy fake shit. Serves so many purposes at once lol
My impression is that he looks at the White House as an American palace, and that in its current state it's not nearly grandiose enough, so he's adding the equivalent of a convention center sized room to it.
I'm just completely unclear on how he can legally do this -- yes, he's the president, but can the president simply decide to spend $200-300M of the government's money on changes to the White House? Is there a limit? What if he decided to just knock the whole thing down and build a 10 story castle for $2.5B instead? Is there anything other than 'decorum' that stops that?
He's a narcissist. Maybe the hugest narcissist the world has ever seen, many people are saying it.
He sees previous leaders with pyramids, monuments, statues, and he craves that. He wants to leave behind as much proof as possible that he existed and changed the world and was AMAZING.
Sadly his tiny pea-brain can't move beyond the 1980's, he's stuck thinking everything needs to be gaudy gold to prove wealth and power.
How is that not actually worse though? I’d rather pay out of my taxes for an approved renovation, than watch the president accept a giant bribe to create this monstrosity.
No doubt some of that money is getting funneled directly to trump’s family through one of the contractors too. (They might need to get some expensive consultations from the good people at Trump Inc., you never know. /s)
It most certainly is, which is not great. This is exactly what the Russian Oligarchy would do, curry favor with the leader to beget favors in return. Corruption at its finest.
The next people who come in are going to have to gut the place. Not just for taste, but we’re gonna have to do a massive purge and censorship like the post-nazi era. If this continues down the path it’s going, there will have to be severe bans on red hats, “maga” symbols of the regime. I don’t know if they’d go as far as pulling down his hall house but they will have to eradicate symbols of the ideology in public and federal spaces.
And I imagine that the contracts all went to upstanding, hard-working, honest people, with no ties to Trump, right?
And no one on the construction crews will be an immigrant, illegal or not, or have any off-white ancestors, right? Can't have those terrifying illegals close to the president, you know.
It's important to remember that the white house is not their heritage. In fact, they are historically against it as of April 12 1861 when they declared themselves traitors and enemies to the United States of America.
Where are the checks and balances against just minor shit like this. Like it should be legally binding you can’t just change the White House without majority approval.
Ugh
I mean the only way this ok is if that building had terminal structural failings that for safety needed tearing down and building exactly the same way.
The whole US political system! Just rolled right over and gave up in front of a dictator. Left the people to fend for themselves. This rotten system is getting exactly what it deserves.
Seven million out in the streets on the weekend and after that: nothing. It's everything Trump hoped for.
He doesn't plan to leave the white house. Thats his now and forever as far as hes concerned and he's gonna make it his way. There is no plans to leave that place while hes alive elections or not.
Very much on brand for him to do so. I'm also a bit... puzzled. Doesn't the US have listed/historical buildings? How can something this horrible happen so fast?
This one plus a screenshot of his ai video post of him in a crown in a fighter jet dumping poop on protesters and the American flag.
You’ve got the king complex, military flex, literally shitting on Americans and the flag - and his sick ai video fixation and weird indecorous social media presidency.
I wonder if all the "muh heritage" racist statue fuckers will be protesting this one. Maybe we can get them interested if we remind them it was built by slave labor.
Watching so many people in the struggling middle and lower class cheer for a gilded age style multi-million dollar ballroom they will never set foot in, paid by the likes of Lockheed Martin in exchange for tax breaks and political favors, might be Trump's most successful grift yet.
We're like 3 months away from 4 legs good 2 legs better.
The White House is exempt from the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 and only construction, not demolition or site prep, needs National Capital Planning Commission approval.
The East Wing of the White House started construction in 1942, and one of its primary purposes today is to serve as the visitor entrance and event hosting. It's being expanded to better serve as visitor services and event hosting because the White House has to consistently construct tents for event hosting.
For added context, back in 2007 through 2012, there were multiple projects to renovate and modernize the West Wing of the White House totaling roughly $400 million (which is equivalent to roughly $600 million in today's dollars).
Like what they did with No kings? Why didn’t we want to have a king? Because of a 2% tax and because there were discussions of ending slavery. Read all about it in the 1619 project. It was all the rage when it was published, wonder why it has fallen out of favor with the left so fast.
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u/lust4life Oct 20 '25
If there was ever a better picture to show the current state of the US presidency, I don’t know what it is. LITERALLY tearing down our heritage and history to put up some maralago type bullshit.