He keeps trying to do things to make the construction of this damn thing faster, and instead, it’s making it slower. The East Wing was wiped out so he could have this stupid thing built (still pissed about this). The debris has been sitting there for weeks. We’ve seen *no*signs of construction except for changing the bathroom into “marble”. With thanks to Raw Story:
President Donald Trump’s beloved ballroom project has been delayed by yet another one of the president’s unfulfilled promises, according to a new report. Last year, Trump removed all six members of the Commission of Fine Arts, an agency that reviews ballroom plans before construction begins. Trump said at the time that he would install loyalists to make the approval process easier, but he has not yet filled those positions, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.
Y’know, it’s been awfully long with no signs of building the place. Costs are going up, up, up! He was so avid about this that he couldn’t stop crowing about it. He did NOT give us any indication that he would decimate the East Wing, and again, what did we lose in there? You can almost bet there are items that were irreplaceable. Yet he’s been dragging his feet about it. It would be nice to be told the status of this whole (ugly) thing. And heaven knows the gaping hole where the East Wing used to be is just heartbreaking (and also ugly).
In turn, the commission postponed its review of the Trump ballroom project for another week to give the president more time to appoint the commissioners. Trump began the ballroom project last October when he abruptly tore down the East Wing of the White House. Initially, Trump said the ballroom would be a small addition to the White House.
Well, we were foolish about that, and should have remembered that anything Trump does is *never* small. And we are likely foolish about the ‘donors’ who were paying the costs. It’s almost certain that we, the taxpayers, the people of this country, who are groaning under the cost escalations from tariffs, unchecked inflation, and living paycheck to paycheck, are going to be footing the cost of this monstrosity.
The project’s cost has ballooned. Trump initially projected the ballroom would cost around $200 million, with construction costs covered by donations from private companies and investors. Recently, he has projected the project to cost between $350 million and $400 million.
See my last sentence for the paragraph above the quote. He’s not going to be able to grift another $200 million. It’s going to happen to us. We don’t need this monument to Trump’s vanity. He’s already done quite enough for the White House. Are we going to manage to stay afloat for the next 3 years and a few days? Every day, we wake up and cringe over the latest news about him. It’s discouraging, yet we have to wait, and support each other because by god, we are going to make it.
Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise, among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
A metaphor for his whole regime.
Unwanted, bloated, expensive and getting more so, and with no real reason for it’s existence other than as a gaudy cheaply gilded monument to a tasteless imbecile’s deluded dreams of greatness.
Fortunately it will be so badly built it will be easy to demolish, leaving us with no physical record and only bad memories, fading fast, of The Worst President Ever™.
Physical record of the ballroom and no East Wing. Also, yea verily, I am humbled by that second line. Wish I could write like that. And I don’t think yea was the correct way to spell it a la Shakespeare.
Private donors will pay for the ballroom like Mexico would pay for the wall. At the same time he is trying to investigate Jerome Powell for renovation cost overruns that didn’t happen.