Is Trump Setting Fire to the White House?

Letter to Ephesians: Imagine Paul Revere riding down Penn Ave today shouting, “Trump is destroying the White House!” The libs like Whoopi Goldberg are saying as much as No 47 adds a needed ballroom for state affairs … not unlike overdue upgrades made through history.

Yet even the WSJ’s conservative editorial board seemed to appreciate Trump’s Big Beautiful Ballroom now going up at the far end of the East Wing. They reminded, “Critics of the White House renovations also hated Jefferson’s colonnades and Truman’s balcony.” I might add how President Lincoln wallowed in a dilapidated White House that was literally falling on his and Mary’s head, i.e., until the First Lady had the sense to at least make badly needed ceiling repairs and redecorations as well as install furnishings worthy of the Republic’s Commander in Chief. One Big Beautiful Difference? Trump promises his penchant for architectural beauty will be paid for by private donations, not the taxpayers. The editors couldn’t help but snicker at the angst being triggered, regardless: “After photos hit the wires showing construction equipment at the White House, tearing into the East Wing, critics lamented the lost quarters of the social secretary and the calligraphy office. Some urged Democrats to run in 2028 on a promise to raze Mr. Trump’s ballroom.”

As the WSJ suggests, however, “Take a breath folks … there really is a case for a larger hall at the White House for holding big state dinners & other events, without having to pitch enormous tents on the South Lawn … But adding a ballroom isn’t destroying it, much less democracy, and controversy over such renovations is almost as old as the Republic.” Besides Jefferson and Truman, also ask Renovators in Chief Jackson, TR & FDR. Concluded the editors: “The point is that a government office – and that’s what the WH is, aside from an official residence – can’t be set in amber, unchanging for all time.”

Davd Soul