WHEN President Donald Trump met donors for his new ballroom at the White House earlier this month, he relayed a story that thrilled his real-estate mogul’s heart.
“I said, ‘How long will it take me?’ ‘Sir, you can start tonight, you have no approvals,'” Trump said on Oct 15, describing a conversation he had about the project.
“I said, ‘You gotta be kidding.’ They said, ‘Sir, this is the White House, you’re the president of the United States. You can do anything you want’.”
Days later, demolition crews bulldozed the East Wing of the White House, reducing decades of history at one of the country’s most famous landmarks to rubble and drawing outrage from historians, preservationists, Democrats and the public.
Trump had got what he wanted: a clean slate for his new US$300 million ballroom. It seemed to symbolise a presidency that has taken a wrecking ball to national norms, international institutions and the world order.
Historians, aghast at the move, saw the thinking of a developer at work rather than the keeper of a sacred trust.
“I think this is the developer’s mentality again of building something big that has your name on it and that everyone remembers you for.
“A Trump Tower,” said Jeremi Suri, a University of Texas historian.
“He’s building a tower for himself. This is a ballroom tower.”
Trump, speaking at a dinner with executives from companies the White House said would pledge to help fund the ballroom — including Apple, Amazon, Lockheed Martin and Meta — marveled at the project’s possibilities.
“It’s exciting as a person in real estate, ’cause you’ll never get a location like this again,” he said.
As a businessman, Trump put his name on buildings, steaks and ties. Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday the ballroom would be named, too, but declined to say what it would be.
Trump told reporters late on Friday that he didn’t plan to name it after himself. But the 90,000-square-foot structure will be forever associated with him.
“Everybody’s going to look at it and they’re going to see now an edifice that overshadows the executive mansion, and that edifice has one man’s name on it,” said Edward Lengel, a former chief historian at the White House Historical Association.
“I believe that’s intentional.”
Well before the ballroom project became a reality, Trump had made his mark on the White House with gold decorations in the Oval Office, a paved-over Rose Garden reminiscent of his Florida Mar-a-Lago club, portraits of himself throughout the property and giant American flags on new flagpoles on the north and south lawns.
The Republican president has also sought to remake Washington, DC, taking over control of the Kennedy Center and planning an Arc de Triomphe-style monument to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the US next year.
Taylor Budowich, a former senior adviser to the president, said Trump was the nation’s “greatest builder” with a vision for the White House and beyond.
“The president is a visionary, whether it be in politics, business or life. He is able to see things not just for what they are, but for what they could be,” he said.
“This is just another wonderful example of Trump being Trump.”
Trump’s team and his allies have dismissed criticism of the ballroom project as manufactured outrage.
“All of his properties are first class. And he doesn’t spare expenses, and he has an eye for it. This will be a wonderful addition,” said Armand Grossman, a Florida-based real estate investor who worked for Trump for four years, about the ballroom.
“It will be around for a long time for many generations to enjoy.”
While previous renovations were funded and approved by Congress, this one will be paid for by private donors, reducing oversight restrictions.
And while the White House says it plans to submit designs for the ballroom to the National Capital Planning Commission, it says that body only oversees construction, not demolition.
“I think it’s very clear that the administration studied those weaknesses and, with much greater care than they’re letting on, that they then very ruthlessly exploited those weaknesses,” Lengel said.
* The writer is from Reuters
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