This Creep Lied, and You Can't Be Surprised

 

Trump acknowledged on Wednesday that he was having the entire East Wing demolished to make way for his 90,000-square-foot ballroom, a vanity project to polish his turd ego and a signal he never intends to leave.

Trump initially said the ballroom construction would not dismantle parts of the White House. “My new ballroom won’t interfere with the current building. It’ll be near it but not touching it,” he said in July. “And pays total respect to the existing building, which I’m the biggest fan of.” The planned size of the ballroom would transform the footprint of the White House. At 90,000 square feet, the ballroom would be nearly double the size of the White House residence, which is 55,000 square feet.

The East Wing was built in 1902 during Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency as an extension to the White House, but was overhauled in the 1940s at the request of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The president also said on Wednesday that the ballroom would cost $300 million, $100 million more than initially estimated. Trump has said that he is shaking down billionaires and corporations seeking government favors to fund the project.

The ballroom is only the latest White House renovation that Trump has undertaken. The Oval Office now features many gilded flourishes for a man who said he doesn't think of himself as a king. He also paved over the Rose Garden and is planning to build an arch in front of Arlington National Cemetery in the style of the Arc de Triomphe.

Sara C. Bronin, a law professor at George Washington University who led the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, said that Mr. Trump’s decision to tear down the East Wing appeared to run afoul of the National Historic Preservation Act, which requires federal agencies to take into account the effects of their actions on historic places.