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Americans have 300 million reasons to hate Trump's ballroom



On Wednesday, President Donald Trump held a news conference in the Oval Office
in which he bragged about tearing down the entire East Wing of the White House
for his pet ballroom project. The cost of the endeavor, which started at $200
million over the summer, is now a whopping $300 million.

Holding up pictures of the gilded ballroom—so hideously ostentatious it would
make Saddam Hussein blush—Trump again claimed that the project is "paid for
100% by me and some friends of mine."

However, the White House is not releasing a full list of the donors, nor how
much they are giving—making the whole thing reek of corruption and a possible
pay to play scheme.




 



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We do know some of the donors and how much they gave, such as Alphabet, the
parent company of Google and YouTube, contributing $22 million. This was from a
settlement for Trump being banned from YouTube after fomenting the insurrection
on Jan. 6, 2021. Other major company leaders attended a fundraising dinner at
the White House for the project earlier in October, but it’s unclear just how
much they ponied up to make Dear Leader happy to avoid possible retribution
from the authoritarian wannabe occupying the White House.

Meanwhile, Trump said that he is now razing the entire East Wing of the White
House to make way for the gigantic ballroom.

“In order to do it properly, we had to take down the existing structure,”
Trump said.

That's a total about-face from his previous insistence that the existing
structure would not be touched.

“It won’t interfere with the current building. It’ll be near it but not
touching it,” Trump said in July when he first announced the ballroom project.
“And pays total respect to the existing building, which I’m the biggest fan of.”




 



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Ultimately, Americans are not thrilled with Trump's vanity ballroom project.

A YouGov survey released on Tuesday found 50% of Americans disapprove of
Trump demolishing the East Wing for his ballroom—40% of whom disapprove
strongly. The question was asked before Trump said the entire East Wing was
being razed, and only asked respondents if they approved of the partial
demolition of the existing structure. That means the ultimate percentage of
people disapproving of the project could very well be higher.

YouGov also found that just 23% of Americans think the ballroom will have a
positive impact on the White House.

Of course, it's no wonder the polling is so bad.

The optics of Trump building a gold-encrusted ballroom while at the same time
saying that the country is deeply in debt and we can't afford to help Americans
afford groceries or health care is tone deaf beyond belief.

“The White House belongs to the American people, not to one person. Past
presidents rightly consulted with Congress before construction projects,” Rep.
Don Beyer (D-VA) wrote in a post on X. “Donald Trump taking a wrecking ball to
one of America's greatest symbols is awful and illegal, and sadly also an
accurate metaphor.”



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