Trump’s Big Beautiful Ballroom Is a Gift for America in the Best Tradition of His Predecessors

Breitbart

"On November 2, 1800, President John Adams penned a quick letter to his beloved wife, Abigail, to inform her that he had arrived in the new capital city and that their still unfinished residence—which he simply called “the President’s house”—was “habitable.” He ended with a hopeful prayer: “I pray Heaven to bestow the best of Blessings on this House and all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise Men ever rule under this roof.”

"His prayer turned out to be more aspirational than predictive. Although I’m certain the Almighty has bestowed His blessings on our nation, the inhabitants of that house have been a mixed bag of dishonest and foolish along with honest and wise.

"And almost none of them lived under the same “roof” that Adams did. The structure that we now call the White House has been burned, trashed, demolished, dilapidated, gutted, and subjected to every kind of indignity — from poor taste to debauchery — for the past 225 years. The only thing connecting the current structure to the barely “habitable” building that Adams first entered is some of the sandstone exterior walls." . . .

A George Munger painting showing the smoke-filled shell of the White House after it was burned by
the British in 1814. All that remained was the charred sandstone exterior. (Wikimedia Commons)

. . . "Old Hickory’s Drunken Hootenanny and Giant Cheese 

"The botany-loving President John Quincy Adams added an arboretum to the White House grounds, as well as a billiard table to the residency. But his populist successor from the wilds of Tennessee left a bigger imprint on the White House—in more ways than one.

"Jackson added the North Portico (for which he was criticized for lavish spending) and installed indoor plumbing. But perhaps his most memorable impact on the structure was the rager he threw for his inauguration.

"Jackson — or “Old Hickory” as they called him — was beloved by the “deplorables” of his day, to the horror of the East Coast establishment from the 13 original colonies.

"He was the first to really democratize the “People’s House” — in the sense that he invited “the People” inside to celebrate with him. An unruly throng (described by contemporaries as a “mob”) of 20,000 well-wishers followed Jackson to the White House after his swearing-in ceremony. What followed is the stuff of legend, as the White House Historical Association explains:" . . .

Many, many more historical photos of most of the manifestations of the Exective Mansion

The fire:1929 was a bad year all around

Sound familiar? "[First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy] endured vociferous attacks from critics claiming that she was wasting money, despite the fact that her restoration work was funded by private donors. The critics were wrong yet again. Today, every administration follows Jacqueline Kennedy’s lead in fundraising to preserve the White House’s history and heritage." . . .

Trump’s Big Beautiful Ballroom

"By now, we can see four patterns in White House renovation history:

1. Every White House renovation is met with criticism — often for political reasons. But with time, most of the changes are embraced, and no one even remembers the criticism.
2. The White House is not a mausoleum frozen in time. It’s constantly changing.
3. The projects are always criticized for wasting money, even though many of them rely on private donations.
4. The most lasting renovations are the ones that serve the American people, not just the presidents.

"For all of these reasons, Trump’s Big Beautiful Ballroom is in keeping with the best traditions of his predecessors.

"First, his critics are almost all politically motivated, and their criticism is unlikely to stand the test of time. Do they really want us to believe that the man who respectfully restored the Plaza Hotel and Mar-a-Lago will be careless with the White House? You might think he’s winging it when it comes to Middle East peace, but you cannot seriously claim that he doesn’t know how to build a ballroom." . . .

Eric Swalwell says the first Democrat to win the Presidency must...must demolish this. I think they will back down to public pressure but, knowing the level of inferior attributes of this dysfunctional political party, I expect a Democrat Party will refuse to use the ballroom, preferring another location or a big tent as before. TD

Swalwell demands 2028 Dem candidates vow to destroy Trump's White House ballroom project   . . . "Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., said the next Democratic presidential nominee must vow to demolish President Donald Trump's White House ballroom, proposing the pledge a litmus test for the party’s 2028 contenders.  "Don’t even think of seeking the Democratic nomination for president unless you pledge to take a wrecking ball to the Trump Ballroom on DAY ONE," Swalwell wrote on X on Saturday."

Israeli authorities show international journalists 'raw, gruesome' footage of Israeli deaths

  Sky News Australia  We must never forget these murderers and their useful idiots on Western Campuses. TD

1,275,618 views Oct 24, 2023 "Overnight, Israeli authorities took the extraordinary step of calling international media into a private briefing room to show "raw and gruesome" footage of Hamas terrorists killing innocent Israelis on October 7, says Sky News host Sharri Markson.

"Israeli authorities felt the international media were downplaying
or even denying, what had unfolded in these terror attacks," Ms Markson said.

"They say the lies are similar to the phenomenon of Holocaust deniers."

"Ms Markson said 100 international journalists viewed the footage from October 7 on Monday night with some bursting into tears as they saw beheadings, torture and murder.

" 'Israel showed journalists this footage because it needs the world to understand what happened in order to explain why Israel is fighting back so forcefully."

"Warning: This video contains distressing content."

"Only people who suffer from mental disorders think that Hamas' brutality is normal. And only barbaric people can still justify Hamas' brutal actions against innocent people; babies, children, the elderly and innocent civilians. The world has turned upside down, between good and evil there is almost no difference anymore just because of the interests of religion, ethnicity, tribe, country, race, background etc. What great demon has possessed your soul that such brutality is considered innocent and even defended and protected?" Comment to the video

Newsom Recounts Tough Childhood Where He Got In One Little Fight And Was Forced To Move In With His Auntie And Uncle In Bel-Air

 Babylon Bee parody  

"At publishing time, Newsom had gone on to tell the hosts about how his uncle used to throw his best friend "Jazz" out of the house on a near-weekly basis."

"LOS ANGELES, CA — California Governor Gavin Newsom gave voters a rare glimpse into his tragic story while appearing on a popular basketball and entertainment podcast, recounting his tough childhood where he got in one little fight and was forced to move in with his auntie and uncle in Bel-Air.

"Newsom told the previously unknown story to illustrate the challenges he faced as a disadvantaged youth, giving insight into how far he had come since he lived on the mean streets as a young boy to now govern the Golden State.

"This is a story all about how my life got flipped. I mean, completely turned upside down," Newsom said. "On the playground is where I spent most of my days, really. You know… chillin' out… maxin'... relaxin', all cool. Shootin' some b-ball outside after school. That kind of thing. But there were a couple of guys, and they were just up to no good. They started making trouble in and around my neighborhood. I ended up getting into one little fight, and my mom got scared, and she told me, ‘You're going to move in with your auntie and uncle in Bel-Air.' That's when everything changed for me. Hand to God."

"The hosts and viewers of the podcast were amazed by the story. "We had no idea, man," said host Matt Barnes. "That story sounds almost like it's made for TV or something."

"Newsom acknowledged the fantastical nature of the tale. "I feel you, bro," he said. "But the cab I took pulled up to the house, I think it was around 7 or 8 or something. I told the cabbie, ‘Yo, homes, smell ya later.' The guy reeked, ok? Like bad. But anyway… there I was. I ended up in Bel-Air." . . .

California's Fast Food Minimum Wage Hike Cost the State 18,000 Jobs. That Shouldn't Surprise Anyone.  "In 2023, California passed a law requiring a $20 per hour minimum wage for all fast-food restaurants with more than 60 locations nationwide. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom portrayed the union-supported law as pro-worker, saying it moved the state "one step closer to fairer wages."

"Other California politicians supporting the law claimed it would provide a path to economic security for lower-income workers, enabling them to more assuredly put food on the table.

" 'Sacrifice, dedication, and the power of a government who serves its people is what got us to this moment," said then-Assemblymember Chris Holden (D–Pasadena).

"But the carve-out for smaller chains was an implicit acknowledgment that the law would come with costs—costs that smaller businesses with slimmer margins presumably could not afford. New research suggests that the mandate has also resulted in fewer jobs for struggling entry-level workers.

"The law went into effect in April 2024 and increased the hourly pay of an estimated half a million workers across the state. But without the law in place, thousands more workers would likely have been employed." . . .  This young lady explains it in simple terms

Receipts Get Dropped After JB Pritzker Tells Whopper About His Comparisons of Trump to Hitler (UPDATED)

 Sister Toldjah

Toon added by TD

"Probably more than any other prospective 2028 presidential candidate, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) has repeatedly made comparisons of President Donald Trump to Hitler and Nazi Germany, with Trump's focus on crime crackdowns and immigration enforcement in cities like Chicago seeming to be the primary catalyst for Pritzker's incendiary claims.

"For instance, Pritzker proclaimed in an August interview that "the Nazis tore down the constitutional republic in Germany in the early 1930s. It doesn't take much. And we're seeing pieces of that sort of authoritarian activity happening right now in this country."

"Left out of Pritzker's rant, however, was his reign of terror during the COVID-19 pandemic, with him enjoying emergency draconian powers for over three years, while holding himself and his family to a (D)ifferent set of standards than he did the people of Illinois.

---

READ MORE: JB Pritzker's Latest Rant About 'Democracy' and 'Authoritarianism' Does Not Go According to Plan

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"Strangely, though Pritzker is keen to invoke the comparisons, when he's asked about them during interviews, he flat out denies it. And, as in the case of a Monday podcast interview he did with MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace, his interviewers typically join in on the gaslighting:. . . "

JB Pritzker: I never called them Nazis

Also JB Pritzker: OK, so maybe I called Trump Hitler and Republicans nazis on a dozen occasions…pic.twitter.com/28MLpXvaec

— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) September 15, 2025

Robert De Niro Calls Stephen Miller a ‘Nazi’ In Wild MSNBC Rant: Trump’s ‘Goebbels’ Should Be ‘Ashamed!’   Anyone, he implies therefore, has society's permission to assassinate Mr. Trump. Oh, wait! People are already trying, thanks to numerous Biden speeches and MSNBC's commentaries. The Tunnel Dweller

MSNBC faces backlash for using Nazi rally clips during Madison Square Garden coverage

'The New York Times' can't shake the cloud over a 90-year-old Pulitzer Prize

 Georgia Public Broadcasting  Previously covered in 2012 in the Tunnel Wall: Walter Duranty Prize for Journalistic Mendacity Be patient with Mr. Corsi's delivery.

"People ate mice, they ate rats, they ate leaves, they ate grass," Applebaum says. "There were even some incidents of cannibalism."

"The New York Times is looking to add to its list of 132 Pulitzer Prizes — by far the most of any news organization — when the 2022 recipients for journalism are announced on Monday.

"Yet the war in Ukraine has renewed questions of whether the Times should return a Pulitzer awarded 90 years ago for work by Walter Duranty, its charismatic chief correspondent in the Soviet Union.

" 'He is the personification of evil in journalism," says Oksana Piaseckyj, a Ukrainian-American activist who came to the U.S. as a child refugee in 1950. She is among the advocates for the return of the award. "We think he was like the originator of fake news."

"A new voice now adds himself to the cause: former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller — himself a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1989 for his own reporting for the Times on the Soviet Union.

"In the 1930s, as now, an autocrat's decrees led to mass deaths of Ukrainian civilians and relied on misinformation to try to cover it up. Reporters, including Duranty, were censored and threatened. (A U.S. diplomat once wrote that Duranty told him his reports had to reflect "the official opinion of the Soviet regime.") Yet in a time before social media and the internet, foreign journalists were among the only ones who could get news out to the rest of the world.

"Duranty was The New York Times' man in Moscow, as the line went, with a cushy apartment in which to entertain expatriates and a reputation as a leading authority on the Soviet Union. Duranty had staked his name on the idea that Josef Stalin was the strong leader the communist country needed. He is often credited with coining the term "Stalinism."

  https://youtu.be/8Vt9B3G2w7M

"The major controversy regarding his work remains his reporting on the great famine of 1930–33 that struck certain parts of the USSR after agriculture was forcibly and rapidly "collectivised". He published reports stating "there is no famine or actual starvation nor is there likely to be" and "any report of a famine in Russia is today an exaggeration or malignant propaganda". In Ukraine, one of the regions most affected, this disaster is today known as the Holodomor." . . .Walter Duranty - Wikipedia

Giving birth to this new award: Walter Duranty Prize for Journalistic Mendacity. (Photo above)

"On May 5, 2014, The New Criterion and PJ Media presented the second Walter Duranty Prize for Journalistic Mendacity. The award is given to highlight egregious examples of dishonest reporting. Also awarded this year was the Rather, a new award for lifetime achievement in mendacious journalism.
The Duranty Prize is named after Walter Duranty, the New York Times Moscow corresponded in the 1920s and 1930s who whitewashed Joseph Stalin’s forced starvation of the Ukrainians (the Holodomor) and many other aspects of Soviet oppression. Duranty was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1932 for his efforts. It has never been revoked."

Their Time Is Up

Formerly a regular listener of PBS, I became bored with daily stories on how bad the people of Gaza had life because of Israel. TD

Phyllis Chesler  

"Psychologically, Muslim Islamists have been mocking Jewish history by mimicking and hijacking it in order to plead their very false case: From their point of view, Gazans have experienced a "holocaust"; Gazan and Arab Muslims have been raped, starved, and beaten; in Israeli jails, Arabs have been "occupied" and have been forced to live under "apartheid.' " . . .

 NEW YORK TIMES ADMITS USING MISLEADING COVER PHOTO OF EMACIATED GAZA CHILD (Below)

 "I've finally done it--cancelled my subscription to the hard-copy version of The New York Times. It will in no way affect their profit margin, but I will no longer have to read it from cover to cover seven days a week in order to be able to comment on the layout or the size of their photos.

"And So Be It.

"I've put in my time; my jail cell is open to anyone who wants to serve a similar sentence of documenting the American version of Al-Jazeera.

"No, it was not any one thing. There was no final straw. It was thousands of them. There were all the magazine covers that focused almost exclusively on the suffering of innocent Gazans, that used doctored Hamas photos and doctored Hamas numbers. And, most recently, they published a Sunday magazine cover story that extolled the virtues of New York City Democratic mayoral candidate, Zohran Mamdani, at great length, and they followed that up the very next day with a long article that praised him even further.

"Well, there was this: The other day, a NYT headline about a returned Israeli hostage put the description of the 'horrors' of his captivity in scare quotes, as if the 'horrors' were only his opinion, not necessarily real or true.

"Yesterday, I watched several podcasts in which well-informed, fact-based truth tellers interviewed those who were utterly and completely brainwashed against Jews and against Israel. One such interviewer allowed an Arab hijabed woman to remain off camera. No matter what the interviewer said or showed, she rejected it as "Israeli propaganda," lies. In her view, there were no murdered Israeli babies on 10/7, nor had Hamas committed a massacre or kidnapped anyone. Her focus remained on all the allegedly kidnapped Palestinians being held in Israeli jails merely because they "resisted" the "occupation."

"I have long pondered how such deep and total brainwashing can be de-programmed. It cannot be done if the brainwashed soul remains embedded in her own geographical region, or continues living among her tribe or keeps hearing Islamic sermons or watching Islamist media.

"But how can one remove each and every Arab Muslim resident living in Yehuda and Shomron and in Gaza (just for starters) and keep each one apart from everyone else--and for many years? How can such a massive re-education process be done absent a total Israeli military victory? And then, what about the Muslim countries now tasked with keeping the peace in Gaza--Egypt, Turkey, Qatar (!!!)-- who've been subject to, and in the case of Qatar and Turkey, funders of, that same malign propaganda?" . . . 

New York Times 'by far' had the worse Israel-Hamas coverage in US media, Jerusalem Post editor says

Megyn Gets Brutally Honest with Karine Jean-Pierre Amid Embarrassing Book Tour: ‘They All Think You’re an Idiot’

 Megyn Kelly 

 "She now wants us to believe that when she refers to a “broken White House,” she is talking about the Trump White House, even though the subtitle of the book is “an inside look” at it? Since when is she inside the Trump White House?"

"Karine Jean-Pierre is making the media rounds to promote her new book, and she is giving Kamala Harris her run for her money. 

"My husband Doug and I were listening to clips from some of her interviews this morning, and he suggested there be some sort of a calculator to figure out how many words in each sentence she says actually have meaning. We both agreed it would probably find that only about 10 percent of her words are necessary. And then we had a debate about who would be lower on this scale, Karine or Kamala. We settled on Kamala, but KJP is in the running for the worst book tour and worst promotion around it.

"We talked about it yesterday on The Megyn Kelly Show with Emily Jashinsky, but it has only gotten worse since then as she sat down with Stephen Colbert, Morning Joe, and The View. It is hard to believe the lies coming out of her mouth. She has managed to stun even me and my team. And I’ll take you through the most egregious ones.

Morning Joe

"KJP stopped by the friendly confines of MSNBC Tuesday morning for a sit down with the Morning Joe crew. Now, keep in mind that the name of her book is Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House. So, how do you square this answer from the former Biden White House press secretary to a perfectly reasonable question from Jonathan Lemire?" . . . 

Argus Hamilton commented:

"Kamala Harris's campaign memoir was reported selling well as Karine Jean Pierre launched her own book tour. They're not the only members of the last administration that landed on their feet after the election loss. It appears that Hunter Biden landed a gig as Admiral of the Venezuelan Fleet."

Much more here:...

Unpacking rumor Chicago teacher Lucy Martinez was fired for mocking Charlie Kirk assassination

Snopes  

"On Oct. 18, 2025, during a "No Kings" protest in Chicago against U.S. President Donald Trump, a bystander recorded a video of a woman making a finger gun, pointing it at her neck, and "firing" it while saying "bang." The video was shared widely on social media, where users interpreted the gesture as a reference to the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, who was shot in the neck in September 2025 during an event at Utah Valley University." . . .

Woman Goes Viral for Mocking Charlie Kirk Assassination at 'No Kings' Protest

   . . . "The video quickly went viral on social media, where users later claimed to have identified the woman and called for her alleged employer to fire her. The school in question, Nathan Hale Elementary School, appears to have since pulled its website and deleted its X account following intense backlash after video footage of the woman went viral online, the Daily Mail reported." . . .

 Chicago teacher accused of mocking Charlie Kirk's assassination as school suddenly pulls website | Daily Mail Online

The school's namesake:

NEW: The woman in the viral video mocking Charlie Kirk's assassination is a Chicago Public School teacher, according to the individual who posted the original video.
"Tha[t] lady from the video is Lucy Martinez. She's a teacher in a Chicago school," he claimed.
Disturbing if… pic.twitter.com/Cq10ayMnnt

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 19, 2025