Trump’s Ballroom Broke the Democrats

 Victor Davis Hanson - The Daily Signal   

"But nonetheless, the ballroom was needed. It’s paid for by private funds. It will be built efficiently, quickly, quite unlike what we see in California with taxpayers’ money and incompetence and regulations." 

10/19/2025; From the Oval Office to the Rose Garden: A look at Trump's renovations so far

"For years, decades, maybe over a century, people have complained that the world’s superpower has nowhere at its capital, i.e., its executive branch, at the White House to entertain people. And usually, tents are constructed when there’s diplomatic or state dinners or there’s festivities.

"Donald Trump, the builder, comes along in his second term and says: You know what? I’m going to solve the problem. I’m going to refashion the East Wing of the White House complex and build a beautiful 90,000-square-foot ballroom, which will allow 650 guests to eat and be entertained and to have official functions. And more importantly, I am going to enlist people from the private sector to pay for it, along with myself. And the price will probably be somewhere between $200 and $300 million.

"The plans are out there. It’s perfectly transparent. There’s a list of everybody who’s donated. They’re not just right-wing donors. There’s most of the familiar Silicon Valley grandees: Apple, Meta, etc. And it looks pretty much consistent with the style of the White House in general.

"But people were outraged because to build this huge ballroom—which was sorely needed—you had to demolish the area where it will connect into the east complex. And of course, that’s always messy.

"So, immediately, Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and the Left—who have shut down the government—are saying the people don’t have enough food or they’re not getting paid, and Donald Trump is building this luxurious, capitalist, oligarchic, aristocratic hallway. No. It’s for all of America. It’s being privately paid. And if the senators are worried about the people with less means, then just open the government.

"But more importantly, it wasn’t more than a nanosecond when the media—Left and Right—started to give examples that refurbishing, remodeling, redoing the White House is very common since its or origins.

"It was burned down—the War of 1812—completely rebuilt.

"President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who suffered from paralysis, wanted to put an indoor swimming pool. He did. And it was torn out by a later administration, made into a press room.

"President Jerry Ford wanted to swim. So, he has an outdoor swimming pool. He just tore up the garden and made a swimming pool. And people use it to this day.

"President Barack Obama wanted to refashion a tennis court into a basketball court. He did just that." . . .