Donald Trump
President Donald Trump’s decision to demolish the White House’s East Wing to construct a giant ballroom is receiving public feedback — and despite there being over 9,000 pages of public comments, "there were barely any supportive missives.”
That’s the report from Axios, which analyzed the comments ahead of a planned Thursday meeting in which the public will be given another opportunity to express itself. The comments include remarks like "complete DISASTER” and "NO GAUDY FAKE GOLD STUFF ALL OVER THE PLACE,” with consistent themes including Trump’s lack of respect for public history and the ballroom overshadowing the White House itself. Susan Dolibois, a Nixon-era East Wing staffer, wrote that “no one wants to be in an adjunct building in a large crowd with lengthened security protocols,” while architects labeled it as an “eyesore” (Charles Luebke, Missouri), an “abomination” (Ron Nestor, California) and “appalling (Donald Horn, Nebraska).
"Constructing a ballroom is possible," Alison Hoagland, a D.C. preservationist, explained "but it should be deferential to the White House, not overwhelming."
The comments even included a remark from a Republican congressman, Rep. Michael Turner of Ohio.
"The stark images of the East Wing demolished in mere days were deeply disturbing to Americans who cherish preservation of our nation's history," Turner wrote. He was joined last month by a former Republican congressman, Rep. Joe Walsh of Illinois, who in part used Trump supporters’ backing of his East Wing destruction as evidence they are part of a “cult.”
“I do my damnedest not to call Trump voters cultists, because I used to be a Trump voter,” Walsh said on Tuesday. “I don't always hold to that rule, but I try my best. But when it comes to my former congressional colleagues — these Republican members of Congress, and all these conservative right-wing talk radio guys and Fox News guys, the world I used to be a part of — man, I'll call them members of a cult till the cows come home.”
Similarly a Republican jurist, U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon, wrote in a recent decision that the White House was making an “end run” around the law by having private donors fund the White House ballroom rather than using congressional funds for the construction project.
"Leon, a George W. Bush appointee, said the congressional authorization was narrow and limited to matters such as White House maintenance, not carte blanche to undertake one of the biggest changes in the White House’s history," according to a report by The Washington Post. "Justice Department lawyers have argued that any pause on the project could pose a national security risk and said they will immediately appeal if Leon grants a stay on construction."
Trump has not focused as much on the ballroom as he has on renovating Washington DC’s public golf courses to be more high end. The New York Times reported last month that patrons of Washington’s golf courses noticed “trucks drove onto the golf course and, somewhere between the fourth and ninth holes, began dumping mounds and mounds of [mud]. Tiny bits of rebar, wiring and specks of white plaster poked out from the piles.”
The “mystery mud,” they later learned, were the remains of the East Wing demolished by Trump.