Cutting corners is not a good idea for his ballroom. This thing is now for more than 1,300 people (when did this happen?). Trump is fine with shortcuts in the building. He draws them on the designer’s rendering with the ubiquitous Sharpie (so it’s ruined). And he blows off any suggestions that are made to him. Remember how many people will be in there. There aren’t enough emergency doors. An earlier design had only 7 bathroom stalls for women. And that’s just a sample.
Since he’s spending all our money on this, he could at least do it right. But he wants the damn thing to get built before he’s out of office, so he can have a bash and crow about how wonderful it is. We can’t be sure his mental capacities will last that long. Or physical. Could you imagine Trump in a wheelchair? He would need two people pushing it. He’d be crabby all the time. But Natalie would easily keep up, even in heels.
Back to the ballroom. We’d rather have the East Wing back. But if the builders are doing shoddy workmanship, we’d not want to go anywhere near it. Trump has been talking about his triumphal arch with military capabilities, and the ballroom has been pushed to a back burner. But it’s still being built.
One more try to go back to discussing the ballroom. My gratitude to the Washington Post via, and thanks to Raw Story:
President Donald Trump reportedly brushed off concerns from his former architect that the White House ballroom lacked some basic safety features despite repeated warnings, and stunned critics argued that would be a valid pretext for the next president to tear it down. McCrery warned that most guests could not quickly leave through the main entrance in an emergency under that design, the Post reported, and he also said the other exits were insufficient and that little would stop a kitchen fire from spreading into the event space directly above.
The newspaper obtained White House meeting notes from Sept. 30, 2025, that read, “Life safety — big concern,” while notes from a Nov. 6 meeting, held after McCrery left, read, “Life safety — needs POTUS buy in.” The Post could not determine whether a code review was ever completed, but two sources told the newspaper that Trump argued with McCrery before his departure, saying, “I am the code.”
I am the code. No, he is not. This is going to become a problem if he’s not building to code. For all we know, the place could come down around our ears. There is the ridiculously overdone military-grade bunker underneath. If the building falls, he’s not going to get to that bunker unless there is something we hadn’t seen. There’s already a perfectly good bunker under another part of the White House, but we can be sure it doesn’t have any gold on it, so it’s not good enough for Trump. The event space is on the second floor. When did *that* happen? Second floor? What else has been missed?
This behemoth of a building is an insult. It’s going to be poorly made, not inspected; we don’t know the quality of what’s being used, so it very well *could* fall down around our ears. Just … wait for it. We can hope no one gets hurt. I hope you enjoyed this slightly humorous interlude.
Friends, I know everybody begs you for money. I promise you that, of all the outlets bugging you for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest-working. We’re a bunch of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. But the rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the ability to continue our quest to tell the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
Should the monstrosity be up and running before Trumpleforeskin leaves office (by whatever means it may require), one possible scenario is him hosting a (YUGE!) “grand opening” event that winds up attracting attendance roughly equal to that of his 250th Anniversary multi-state fair. Another possibility is a fire or structural collapse taking place during said t rand opening ball.
Other scenarios, involving no injuries nor loss of life, involve regulatory rejection of Trumpian design touches that don’t satisfy building codes, delaying or aborting construction (least likely, I know), assuming, of course that he doesn’t just go ahead anyway (“I AM the code”, indeed).
….Oops, that should read *grand* opening ball….