Teddy Roosevelt built the West Wing and added bathrooms. Woodrow Wilson built the Rose Garden. Franklin Roosevelt built the East Wing. Harry Truman gutted the entire Executive Mansion. Jimmy Carter added solar panels. Gerald Ford added a swimming pool. Barack Obama added a basketball court.
Every president has left his mark on the White House – a building that, in addition to belonging to the American people, is also a home to the First Family. But despite all those past renovations (which were at taxpayer expense), Democrats and the liberal media are now in full meltdown mode over President Donald Trump using personal donor funds to add a ballroom to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Construction crews began dismantling the East Wing on October 20 as part of the long-planned, $200 million project to finally give the White House a large gathering space. Until now, presidents have had to use tents to accommodate big events.
The Trump administration explained in July the necessity of this project: “The White House State Ballroom will be a much-needed and exquisite addition of approximately 90,000 total square feet of ornately designed and carefully crafted space, with a seated capacity of 650 people — a significant increase from the 200-person seated capacity in the East Room of the White House.”
Currently, the White House is “unable to host major functions honoring world leaders and other countries without having to install a large and unsightly tent approximately 100 yards away from the main building entrance.” The construction will end with a stunningly beautiful room that can host up to 999 people.
The need to create a larger space to hold state dinners and other functions is well-established. In 2009, a Wired magazine reporter said the existing White House facilities were “smaller than… expected.” In 1990, President George H.W. Bush had to move a signing ceremony for the Americans With Disabilities Act to the South Lawn because it could not accommodate the anticipated number of attendees.
Nevertheless, Trump Derangement Syndrome induced a hysterical reaction when footage began circulating of crews tearing down the East Wing to begin construction.
“Trump is demolishing the White House to build a $300 million ballroom paid for by his billionaire pals. But that’s not all,” socialist Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) incredulously wrote on X. “He is demolishing the Constitution. Demolishing our health care system. Demolishing our democracy.”
Another group of left-wing lawmakers likewise suggested sinister motives in Trump accepting private donations for the project. Five Democrat Senators, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) accused the National Park Service’s nonprofit trust, used for fundraising purposes, of becoming “a vehicle for politicized fundraising, influence peddling, and donor access to President Trump, amid his effort to pay for and build his $300 million ballroom at the White House.”
“We are concerned about the risk of quid-pro-quo arrangements in which large corporations get backroom favors from the White House and President Trump gets his multi-million-dollar ballroom — all while American families face rising prices during a government shutdown,” the senators bemoaned.
But these left-wing senators are being hypocrites – for years they have wailed about the “rich” not paying their “fair share.” Now private corporations are paying money to renovate a public building which will be enjoyed by many for years to come, and Democrats are apoplectic.
The hypocrisy doesn’t end there. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticized Trump, whom she lost to in the 2016 presidential election, saying, “It’s not his house. It’s your house. And he’s destroying it.”
But Hillary and her husband Bill most certainly saw the White House as their house when they resided there for eight years, infamously renting out the Lincoln Bedroom to top donors, turning this sacred room into a fundraising vehicle. As Tim Graham of NewsBusters.org further points out, “President Bill Clinton turned the White House into an intern sex den” and “the Clintons were caught trying to steal $28,000 worth of donated furniture as they vacated the house in 2001.” (The Clintons argued they didn’t know donated gifts to the White House belonged to the American people, not themselves.)
Liberals are also deceitfully eliding the fact that many presidents have made major changes to the White House with no manufactured outrage. An undated entry on the White House Historical Association website affirms this point, stating, “every president and first lady has made changes inside the White House but in very different ways.”
The last “major renovation” occurred under President Harry Truman, something many social media users have pointed out. Truman “completely gutted and rebuilt the White House from the inside,” the Historical Association notes. Other upgrades have also occurred in the 21st century.
In 2008, Congress approved a plan to spend $376 million upgrading infrastructure in the White House, which began in 2010 under the Obama administration. It also included demolition and excavating, as is normal for upgrading a massive complex.
The real issue, of course, is that the left reflexively opposes anything Trump does, even if it involves private money being used for the public’s benefit. The truth is that Trump is building a beautiful new ballroom without costing taxpayers a dime – precisely the opposite of how past First Families like the Clintons used the mansion for their own personal benefit.
Democrats’ issue isn’t the ballroom; that’s an objectively sensible and long-overdue project. Their real problem is that their public enemy number one is doing it – and getting a better deal than anyone could have imagined.
AMAC Newsline contributor Matt Lamb is an associate editor for The College Fix. He previously worked for Students for Life of America, Students for Life Action, and Turning Point USA. He previously interned for Open the Books. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Examiner, The Federalist, LifeSiteNews, Human Life Review, Headline USA, and other outlets. The opinions expressed are his own. Follow him @mattlamb22 on X.
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