Lincoln Project founder and former GOP strategist Rick WIison (Screenshot/MS NOW)
President Donald Trump keeps flouting a White House ballroom and his Republican allies keep pushing for taxpayer funding for the project. But Never Trump conservative Rick Wilson, says the ballroom a blatant example of the president being woefully out of touch with voters at a time when they are much more concerned about the economy, inflation, employment and gas prices.
During Wilson's Thursday afternoon, April 30 appearance on MS NOW, host Katy Tur noted concerns that Trump's "priorities are misplaced." And she got no argument from the former GOP strategist.
"Everybody buys gas, everybody buys groceries," Wilson told Tur. "Those things are going up and up and up. And the stresses on the American economy from the war, from the tariffs, from Donald Trump's failed leadership, are increasing. And telling them we're going to build a ballroom is — it's got a sort of like French-peasants-coming-up-the-drive-with-pitchforks-and-torches vibe to it. This is not a good look for this White House to be pushing a $400 million, taxpayer-funded vanity project — this hideous architectural carbuncle he wants to build on the side of the White House."
Wilson added, "This is not something America has tuned into. They don't like it. If they do pay attention to it, they reject it."
Wilson's opinion appears to manifest in person-on-the-street interviews that MS NOW reporters conducted Wednesday.
"It wasn't this high before he became president," said Florida resident Hardy Terry. "Gas was three something, barely $3. Now it's $4. You know it. It's -- he don't need to be talking about bathrooms, man. You need to be trying to fix the economy."
"I think it's probably money that could be used elsewhere with the way the economy is and people are are starving," said Florida senior pastor Dale Harrison."
"You know, there's a lot of stuff going on around America that needs to change. And if we can't change it or try to help change it, what's the purpose a ballroom?" demanded fast food workers Josua Burrows. "It's kind of insufficient right now."
Wilson, the founder of the Lincoln Project, predicted that if Trump "continues to pursue" the ballroom project, "it's going to get much, much worse for Donald Trump" in terms of approval ratings.
Tur noted a specific Reuters/Ipsos poll from late April showing that 62 percent of Americans believe the U.S. is on the wrong track.
Wilson told Tur, "Look, nothing's working for Trump right now. The economy is going in the wrong direction for Trump. Voter sentiment against Trump on every economic axis and on every leadership axis right now is negative and getting more so."