On Tuesday, the White House told Reuters it intended to send plans to the National Capital Planning Commission, an agency that typically approves and monitors construction on federal buildings. Demolition began earlier this week, with reporters taking video of a backhoe ripping out chunks of the White House’s exterior.
Plans for Trump’s 90,000 sq ft ballroom were made public in the late summer, with Trump saying he would personally fund the $200m construction. “Just another way to spend my money for this construction,” he said at the time.
White House officials insist demolition is allowed without the commission’s approval. Will Scharf, the Trump-appointed head of the commission, who is also a White House staff secretary, said in September there was a difference between demolition and rebuilding work, and only the commission can approve new construction.
But in a letter sent to the White House on Tuesday, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a leading historic preservation nonprofit created by Congress, told the White House that demolition plans were “legally required” to go through public review and urged Trump to pause demolition.
I’m aiming a shit ton of laws were broken
like the destruction of historical buildings…
A federal historical building. Its like the tenant said fuck it and decided to add some bullshit room to a historical house without the landowner’s knowing.
Somehow, I don’t really care, since this is the least he’s done. He’s torturing and murdering people every day through ICE and random boat attacks.
Totally, this is just a distraction for his war with Venezuela.
And the E files
Yhea, just because it doesn’t break the top 100 most illegal and evil shit he has done this year doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep track.
He breaks tons of laws every day. He has his entire life. There’s no laws for the wealthy. I mean he rapes and traffics kids for god sake’s and we all know he has some treasonous shit going on with Putin and Netanyahu. This no accountability for the wealthy thing is why we’re watching everything that was great about America collapse before our eyes. What we’ve been left with is the worst merit less sludge America has to offer
I need to start a betting pool on how long it takes them to put up a huge temporary enclosure so people can’t see and take pictures of the demolition anymore.
I guarantee that the construction will be handled by a company with foreign connections.
A bunch of polish workers will be brought in who he won’t pay.
I was thinking of a bunch of Russians with mobster connections.
“Absolutely no listening devices, guaranteed!”
Exactly. Like the Thing.
Maybe this ballroom is a ruse and they’re planning to demolish the whole building so they can just officially move the White House to Mar a lago. I mean Trump will never leave office again so might as well move it to his house….
I think the ballroom ruse isn’t that, it’s that he intends it to be a throne room
the term that was “ask for forgiveness, not permission” has been transmogrified into “fuck you all, i’m a king”
Plenty of people wake up every morning and say “Death to America”.
But credit where credit is due. Donald Trump is actually living this shit.
lots of fake gold paint
Someone once told Trump that you can’t make gold paint and probably overcharged him a bunch on gold painted veneer. He said recently “… they’ve never found a paint that looks like gold.”
You mean tried to overcharge him. Can’t get overcharged if you never pay your bills.
The obese useless cunt is almost dead and he knows it. So he wants to be remembered, it doesn’t matter to him how he is remembered, as long as he is.
And this is his way of being remembered. He knows that future democrat presidents (ha, if that ever happens again) won’t have the balls to rip this monstrosity down. And he knows that future republican presidents are going to be as corrupt as he is, so they won’t want to rip it down.
Well done, americans, he is no longer just an embarrassing shitstain footnote in your history books.
Nope, there’s literally going to be a gaudy, classless, cheaply adorned monument to him on the Whitehouse grounds for as long as there is a usa. How embarrassing.This pretty much sums up his entire 2nd term in office.
They have concepts of a plan.
Anyone care to guess as to the likelihood that this new ballroom will be torn down in the next decade ?
It’s silly, and not born of logic or reasoning, but it’s been very difficult to shake the hope that one day democracy will be re-established and most of the dumb things this administration has done can be wound back.
Logically I know that this isn’t how things work, it’s just a dream.
That said, I feel like this ball room is going to become a symbol of authoritarianism rather than democracy.
If, for example, Kamala Harris was elected in 2028 would she just announce they’re going to tear down the Ball Room? I’d like that, but it just doesn’t seem like a thing that would happen.
This guy is a stain on humankind and I desperately want his legacy to be scrubbed from the Earth but I have to keep reminding myself that’s not going to happen.
I think it’s more likely to just fall down.
If Trump is paying for it, as he claims, it means no-one is actually getting paid. He’s been taken to court repeatedly for stuffing builders, (https://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/282933-report-trump-has-refused-to-pay-hundreds-of-workers/) , which means stuff won’t be finished, and he’ll probably cut corners to save a buck or two.
If he thing is still standing in a decade, I’ll be surprised. Even more if it’s still usable.
My guess is if it stays, it will have to be continually repaired, and effectively rebuilt section by section once Trump leaves office.
Let’s hope it collapses on its first party
Like some kind of submersible vanity project to visit the Titanic.
Well, he doesn’t pay contractors when it’s his own money, but not sure if that will apply when it’s someone elses money.
We had the chance to throw him in prison. The do nothing facist light capitulating dems failed us and we failed to hold them accountable.
You can’t polish a turd
…but you can roll it in gold leaf
Oh my god if this all fucking falls apart…
Maybe it’ll collapse during some billionaire party that he hosts. A nice hard reset.
This is how he conducted his failed businesses, so no surprises here.
National Capital Planning Commission
The $2.5B cost to renovated Federal Reserve building is partly due to this commission’s “preservation of historical character of the building”. This is definitely a cheaper way to do it, but easier to threaten any commission member doing their job, then wait for them to approve destruction.
Expect final design to include his Mount Rushmore portrait on the roof. With a crown.
