I honestly never believed Trump wouldn’t touch the historic East Wing to build his freaking ballroom. When he announced it, the size of it I thought at least part of the East Wing would be torn away to provide space for the construction. The ‘won’t touch it’ turned to tearing down a little of it to what we are seeing. The whole thing razed to the ground! Oh, Trumpty-Dumpty tried to hide it at first, going so far as to have an edict issued to folks at the Treasury Dept. across the street to NOT take pictures or video. That should have told us then and there what we are now seeing was coming. In days, a historic structure will be GONE. Trump said last week he was not a King. But he’s acting like one because REPUBLICANS won’t join with us to stop him!
The GOP is trying to blow this off as no big deal. I call bullshit. There is serious HISTORY that’s been destroyed. The original east wing was from Teddy Roosevelt in 1902. It was a place for visitors to enter, and way back a place for them to park carriages and then automobiles. During WWII more office space was needed and the east wing was, WITH PLANNING and appropriate review rebuilt. An underground ‘bunker” was created with became what we call the PEOC or Situation Room. And two stories on top. It had it’s own museum and other iconic spaces as well as office space, and since the Carter Presidency housed the First Lady’s offices and staff. That’s some serious history already. Now think back, and the older you are the more moments you’ll remember of distinguished moments of people, including and especially Heads of State arriving at the White House. The greetings under the Portico. Or VIPs arriving for a big event like state dinners or important meetings. That entrance is GONE. For F**king  Ever.
Trump can LIE all he wants about every previous President wanting a huge, grand, blinged out ballroom to rival palaces in other countries. I defy any GOPer to show me video of prior President on camera or even in recordings with biographers lamenting the lack of a HUGE ballroom. Or any writings say THAT is what the White House really, really really needs. Now and then there might have been some minor grumbling that due to space some folks who might have been nice to have on a State Dinner guest list had to be left off but NO ONE actually complained, much less said “By God what this place needs is a Great BIGLY ballroom!” Alas, Trumpty wants one, as bigly and tacky as he can make it so the WH is getting it whether the country wants it or not.
Still, the thought that entered my head this morning drove me into a white hot anger. And to seriously consider what I’ve already stated – that what was going to be partial, even minimal tearing down of part of the east wing is another example of Trump lashing out in anger. Remember, this is Trump we’re talking about. It’s easy enough to believe he lied through his teeth when he repeatedly said the existing East Wing wouldn’t be touched. But he probably figured by the time he snuck a crew in (there’s a lot of trees that blocked the initial destruction) it would be done and who was going to DO anything about it? Not any Republicans. That was for damned sure. Hell, he probably clued in Thune, Johnson and some others with a heads up that Democrats would be up in arms so they could lay the groundwork for a long run of “owing the libs.” The destruction will take less than a week but the construction will take a couple of years or more.
But what if Trumpty assumed that No Kings had “shot its wad” with the first protests? What if he realized as last week went along that Saturday’s round two would be even bigger. So many protests in so many places he couldn’t deploy troops to shut it down without having National Guard and even active duty troops mowing down protesters all over the country (again, even if RED states) as soon as crowds gathered on the east coast? I think he already had the contractor ready to do some demolition starting Monday. Adjusting the contract to do more was an easy enough thing to do. I hope, I really do that the owner of the company, the management and even the workers have their children asking “Daddy, why did you DESTROY all that history?
What if over the weekend Trump said to himself ‘I might not have the title of King but I’ll show everyone I have King-like power until I AM given the title and destroy a big part of one of the most iconic American landmarks? Just do it. Because not even Republicans will dare to anything to me for having destroyed a historic structure!’
What IF the appalling destruction we’re seeing is another, extreme example of Trumpian impulsiveness, petulance and VINDICTIVENESS? I’m serious. The first No Kings protests had around five million take part, and even red states had protest events. Saturday’s was projected to be even bigger. The complete destruction of the East Wing is I fear more than Trump lashing out in anger. It’s a gigantic F**K YOU to every person in this country who has criticized him. Or, in the case of the GOP not worshipped him enough.
How long will it be before the WHITE House gets painted gold? And Trump signs an Executive Order DEMANDING Congress rename it The Trump House? Johnson will be able to get the House to vote for it, and on this Thune WOULD exercise the so-call nuclear option to get the bill passed by the Senate. Two copies of course will be made. Not printed, but done with hand calligraphy in gold ink. Trump will sign both with not a Sharpie but a pen filled with gold ink. One he’ll keep for himself of course. The other he’ll order displayed in the center of the rotunda of the National Archives, stamped at the top with block red letters stating: COPY – followed by I King Trump have the original and YOU don’t!
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Hi Dennis. I totally agree with everything you’ve said,as always, but I think that like so many others you’ve overlooked the big one. This is yet another distraction from Trump’s biggest fear, the release of the Epstein files. We can all be disgusted by his behaviour and temper tantrums, the WH destruction, appalling AI vids of a king in a fighter jet off loading onto protesters etc but let’s not forget this is nothing more than distraction. Never lose sight of that. The files will bring him down. Living in Europe it’s probably easier for me to look at this differently but you and the others at PZ are on the front line. Keep up the pressure on the files.
I am caught between tears and rage about this! As soon as I saw the picture of the backhoe tearing away part of the East Wing, I freaked the F** OUT. It was bad enough to see it then. Now to see that the entire East Wing is gone just made me rage.
As you said, all that history, gone in 2 days. Gone. How much more have we lost? Did he have anything taken out before he destroyed it? We were that lucky, at least? Probably not.
That just hurts. The whole thing hurts. All for a Trump stupid-ass ballroom. I’ve run ouit of words now.
For once, Trump did not lie. His ballroom will not touch the East Wing.
The ballroom just sits on top of it.
Even though Reagan was throwing a bit of shade when he talked about “bringing glamour back” to the White House (after Carter’s very humble presidency), not even he made any suggestion about the need for a bigger ballroom.
He was a horrible man but he knew what REAL class was.
The White House is just a prelude to what he plans to do to the whole country.
I get the sentiment you are expressing but from where I sit it’s an appalling metaphor he deliberately CHOSE to put on display to our country and the world of what he’s already in the process of doing. I saw some pundit say he’s acting the way his dad taught him – do it fast before someone can get a hearing in court to obtain an injunction stopping it. It’s why that first day they tried to hide what was going to happen, even going so far as to tell people who worked across the street in the Treasury bulding NOT to take pictures or video! There was even an attempt to say what took place on day one of the demolition was “merely’ removing part of the facade.
All the while more workers and equipment were being positioned to conduct a rapid razing of what used to be the East Wing. I wonder why as news got out on the first day Democrats weren’t running to court to get an injuction. Or the Trust that was responsible for maintaining the historic aspects of the structure. Or the DC Historical Commission. Were they paid off? Threatened? Both? And what about Democrats in Congress? IF an attempt was made to get an emergency injunction to stop the destruction I haven’t seen any reporting about it.
It takes months or even years to build something like that. Alas, it’s much easier and faster to destroy than to build. Trump knows that. AND he knows with a bit of planning you can rip down a historic structure before people can get a judge to stop it. Take a look at the history of his precious Trump Tower. Yes he acquired the old property and building legally. It had been a museum of sorts but it was more complicated that just moving items out. There were several large frescoes attached to the place that were worth quite a bit. Trump of course promised they’d be carefully removed and taken to a designated recipient. That was an agreed upon condition for the demolition permit. However they were both large and quite heavy so Trump just had them torn down into pieces along with the building itself.
He never had any intention of preserving that artwork. He delayed things enough (by claiming the frescos were way overvalued – it turned out they’d been UNDER valued!) to keep an injunction from being issued before his crew could complete THAT demolition. In other words Trump has played this game before and knows how to win it.
As I said, I fault Democrats and a couple of groups who SHOULD have, when the ballroom was announced and Trump said the existing East Wing ‘wouldn’t be touched’ for not anticipating Trump doing exactly what he’s done. Drafts of motions to stop demolition should have been prepared long before this week. AND lawyers should have been on standby to file them as soon as some trees got cut down to allow room for the demo equipment to get into position and start tearing away at the wall. AND Jeffries & Schumer should have had people on standby to get their ass to Treasury and get up on the roof to livestream as soon as the destruction began.
It’s the weak ass response after the first parts of the East Wing were ripped down that has us regular rank and file Democrats thinking there needs to be some SERIOUS changes in leadership in our Party.
Trump is a malignant narcissist in narcissistic collapse. The No Kings protest absolutely triggered this massive power play/temper tantrum. Most of his cabinet are malignant too, with behavior patterns consistent with overt narcissism and sociopathy. The strokes and mini-strokes, like the blows to his weak ego, are piling up. It shouldn’t be long now.