U.S. President Donald Trump talks while holding up renderings of the planned White House ballroom, aboard Air Force One en route to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., March 29, 2026. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
Atlantic reporter Neil Flanagan says there are many reasons to consider President Donald Trump’s gold-dripping ballroom design a visual affront, but the offense goes much further than overwrought tacky displays of taxpayer-funded wealth.
“Foregrounding the infrastructure that keeps the presidency safe undermines the democratic symbolism of the White House,” said Flanagan. “Its visibility from the street, its modest materials, the tricks that make it seem smaller than it is, the fact that ordinary people can tour parts of it: All of these contribute to the impression that the White House serves a government accountable to its citizens.”
But these principles have always been in tension with the security required to protect the president, he added with each “fence, bollard, and inch of blast-resistant laminated glass is a barrier between the people and their government.”
But one of the nation’s most unpopular presidents in recent history now wants a ballroom that will allow Trump to never “venture beyond the safety of the White House perimeter to attend large gatherings at the Washington Hilton ballroom.”
Safety has been an issue in past presidencies, said Flanagan, despite presidents like Bill Clinton apologizing about having to close parts of the White House property to vehicles.
“I will not in any way allow the fight against domestic and foreign terrorism to build a wall between me and the American people,” Clinton said. “We cannot allow ourselves to be frightened or intimidated into a bunker mentality.”
But Trump adores a rich man’s bunker.
“On May 29, protesters responding to the murder of George Floyd assembled in front of the new, towering fence. Trump was rushed into FDR’s air-raid shelter. As the protests went on, deeper layers of security rose around the White House. On June 1, protesters were aggressively pushed back to install mesh riot barriers, sealing off about 100 acres of Washington. Trump bragged on Twitter that any protesters who might have made it over the White House fence would have faced “the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons.”
After Trump’s own January 6, 2021, insurrection Flanagan said those metal barriers “have been a regular sight around D.C., even going up for the White House Easter Egg Roll, as more and more of Pennsylvania Avenue has slipped from the public domain.”
Thirty years ago, Clinton warned about falling into a bunker mentality. Now a bunker seems to occupy the entire mind of his successor.