(actually, we're enlarging the exterior of a wing adjacent to the White House. the wing itself was originally built in 1902 as a very small entrance way to the WH and then was gutted and extensively renovated and enlarged in 1942. now we're adding a ballroom so we no longer have to have state dinners in a circus tent on the lawn.)

https://x.com/tesicram/status/1980837722022637960

https://x.com/CerebralNinjaMD/status/1980555488229314695/photo/1

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5788764&forum_id=2"#49366949)

imagine being enough of a fucking loser to go around lying to people about this kind of shit every fucking day of your life

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5788764&forum_id=2"#49367657)

i'm not a fan of Trump's love for gold leaf but for fuck's sake can't the media ever tell the truth?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5788764&forum_id=2"#49367973)

I'll agree to that the interior designs for the ballroom is a bit gilded but it does fall squarely in the aesthetics of the grand ballrooms of the past in European palaces. So what is really class here? Petty DC liberals or the great dukes and princes of the 18th century?

Trump likes gold. The next president can always tone down the gilt and it'll be perfectly fine.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5788764&forum_id=2"#49371074)

====

Shaun King

@shaunking

I actually think it's a great idea to build a big ballroom on the White House grounds.

It's virtually impossible to hold events of any size there and they are always wasting millions on tents and heaters and chairs and lights and everything else.

Stop acting like you have some emotional attachment to the East Wing. You don't.

9:06 AM · Oct 23, 2025

·

1.4M

Views

https://x.com/shaunking/status/1981391778977554545

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5788764&forum_id=2"#49370921)

https://media.tatler.com/photos/650c12d1f4e27e7e6f1bce39/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/Versailles_210923_2RWPDJ0.jpg

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03234/State_Banquet_Obam_3234246b.jpg

https://thevendry.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=640,quality=75,fit=contain,metadata=none,format=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fs3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads.thevendry.co%2F36209%2F1692374651198_00-comedor_de_gala.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/96/Berlin_-_Schloss_Bellevue2.jpg/960px-Berlin_-_Schloss_Bellevue2.jpg

here is where the US holds its state dinners:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01529/largetent_1529343c.jpg

https://c8.alamy.com/comp/C3KFX1/the-tent-on-the-south-lawn-of-the-white-house-where-president-barack-C3KFX1.jpg

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5788764&forum_id=2"#49371381)

all they need is outside tvs 65" tuned to Gameday

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5788764&forum_id=2"#49371535)

foxnews and msnbc are always gonna "do there thing" but that tells you nothing about what's reflected in the populations attitudes

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5788764&forum_id=2"#49371717)

No, Trump Isn’t Destroying the White House

Judging by the morose and hysterical rhetoric that has emanated from the Democratic Party and its ideological allies during the past couple of days, one might have thought that President Trump had announced his intention to send a squadron of B-2 bombers across the Potomac to completely level Washington, D.C. Having shared a carefully cropped photograph of construction at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, complained yesterday evening that, by making his well-publicized changes to the East Wing, Donald Trump is “literally destroying the White House.” In no less an indignant tone, former First Lady Hillary Clinton agreed, griping that “it’s not his house. It’s your house. And he’s destroying it.” Elsewhere, Kennedy scion Maria Shriver confessed that the project “breaks my heart and it infuriates me,” while The Bulwark’s Jonathan V. Last insisted that “razing the Trump ballroom and restoring the White House to pre-Trump status is non-negotiable.” In the usual circles, the usual suspects were thrilled to agree.

Of all the reasons to criticize President Trump, this must count as the silliest. Often, Trump deserves the opprobrium that is cast his way. Here, he most decidedly does not. This, to put it plainly, is a non-story, a freakout, a fiction spun from whole cloth. There is not a grain of truth here, but a vacuum. Trump is replacing a handful of office buildings with a ballroom. That’s it. No more, and no less.

As a general matter, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with a president making changes to the White House. Nor, for that matter, is there anything sinister about his approving complicated construction projects that involve the temporary removal of one of its walls. Over the years, presidents of both parties and of all leadership styles have done precisely this, and nobody has cared one whit. Some of those presidents, such as Harry Truman and Theodore Roosevelt, used public money to pay for their modifications. Some, such as John F. Kennedy, Dwight Eisenhower, and Gerald Ford, raised private funds. In all cases, they left the White House in a different state than they found it; in no cases did that decision imply incipient fascism, betray an inappropriate sense of permanent ownership, or justify tears and outrage from the president’s political critics.

The history of the White House is one of frequent revision. Started in 1792, the project was completed in 1800, at the tail end of John Adams’s sole term. In 1814, during the War of 1812, it was so badly damaged by British soldiers after the Battle of Bladensburg that it required substantial rebuilding — a project that began in 1815 and ended in 1817, during the first Monroe administration. The South Portico was added in 1824, for James Monroe, and a balcony was added to it in 1948, for Harry Truman. The North Portico was added in 1830, for John Quincy Adams. Since then, various ancillary elements have been added or amended, either to make it more useful to the modern presidency or to satisfy the whims of the current occupant.

The famous West Wing of the building was constructed in 1902, during the administration of President Theodore Roosevelt, so that the executive offices that he and his staff used could be properly separated from the mansion’s residential quarters. The Oval Office was added in 1909, during the administration of William Howard Taft, and then renovated and moved in 1934, during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first term. The East Wing was added in 1902, at the same time as the West Wing, and modernized during the Second World War to add a second story of offices and to help conceal the Presidential Emergency Operations Center/PEOC that had been built under it. The Executive Residence was completely gutted and reconstructed by President Truman between 1948 and 1952, after an architectural report found that it was unfit for purpose.

The Family Theater was added in 1942, remodeled in 1982, and refurbished again in 2004. In 1933, President Roosevelt added an indoor swimming pool, which, in 1970, President Nixon filled in and transmuted into the current Press Briefing Room. In 1975, President Ford added an outdoor swimming pool on the South Grounds, which remains there to this day.

President Truman added a bowling alley in 1947, which President Eisenhower moved to the Old Executive Office Building in 1955. In 1969, President Nixon abandoned that innovation and built a new bowling alley under the North Portico. In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt added a tennis court, which President Taft moved to the South Lawn in 1911, and which President George H. W. Bush enlarged in 1989. In 2009, President Obama retrofitted that tennis court so that it could also be used for basketball. In 2020, President Trump added a pavilion to the tennis facilities. In 1954, President Eisenhower had a putting green installed on the South Lawn. This was removed by President Richard Nixon, reinstalled in 1991 by President George H. W. Bush, and then moved by Bill Clinton a couple of years later.

There is nothing different — or even particularly interesting — about President Trump’s decision to replace a bunch of 1940s-era East Wing office buildings with a ballroom. Nor is it unusual for this alteration to have been paid for with private funds. Certainly, one may quibble with President Trump’s often gaudy design preferences. But, objectively, the White House lacks entertainment spaces, and the addition of a new facility will clearly help to alleviate that problem. The capacity of the State Dining Room is 140, and the capacity of the East Room is 200 (perhaps 250 if guests are seated cheek by jowl), which means that, at present, it is common for large White House functions to be held in temporary tents that have been erected at great cost on the South Lawn. When complete, the new ballroom will hold 999 guests. The justification for this is so obvious that the idea was first proposed by President Harrison — back in 1891.

Adding a ballroom is not akin to “destroying” the White House. Using mechanical diggers to prepare for renovations is not moving or scary or poignant or worthy of elevated emotions. Altering a modern part of the executive branch’s headquarters is not in any sense sullying “your house.” Good grief, people. Pull yourselves together.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5788764&forum_id=2"#49374507)

and it's not "the White House," and it's not "the People's House." it's the East Wing which like 1/10,000 people in the US were aware of in any detail.

this wailing and moaning is bizarre.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5788764&forum_id=2"#49374672)

====

Opinion

Editorial Board

In defense of the White House ballroom

Donald Trump vs. the NIMBYs

October 25, 2025 at 5:42 p.m. EDTYesterday at 5:42 p.m. EDT

4 min

A model of the new White House ballroom in the Oval Office. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)

The teardown of the White House’s East Wing this week is a Rorschach test. Many see the rubble as a metaphor for President Donald Trump’s reckless disregard of norms and the rule of law, a reflection of his willingness to bulldoze history and a temple to a second Gilded Age, paid for by corporate donors. Others see what they love about Trump: A lifelong builder boldly pursuing a grand vision, a change agent unafraid to decisively take on the status quo and a developer slashing through red tape that would stymie any normal politician.

In classic Trump fashion, the president is pursuing a reasonable idea in the most jarring manner possible. Privately, many alumni of the Biden and Obama White Houses acknowledge the long-overdue need for an event space like what Trump is creating. It is absurd that tents need to be erected on the South Lawn for state dinners, and VIPs are forced to use porta-potties.

The State Dining Room seats 140. The East Room seats about 200. Trump says the ballroom at the center of his 90,000-square-foot addition will accommodate 999 guests. The next Democratic president will be happy to have this.

Preservationists express horror that Trump did not submit his plans to their scrutiny, but the truth is that this project would not have gotten done, certainly not during his term, if the president had gone through the traditional review process. The blueprints would have faced death by a thousand papercuts.

Follow Trump’s second term

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Fortunately for Trump, the White House is exempt from some of the required regulations that other federal buildings must comply with. Because it has become far too difficult to build anything in America. Prominent Democrats have become vocal this year in calling out their party’s lawyerly obsession with process, which combined with a not in my backyard (NIMBY) mentality, has prevented a place such as California from building a high-speed rail project that its voters approved by referendum in 2008.

Many homeowners have become red-pilled by their struggles to navigate the slow-as-molasses maze of government bureaucracy when they’re trying to make even modest renovations, such as adding a deck. D.C. alone has 70 historic districts and other random entities that can throw sand in the gears.

Though the fundraising for the ballroom creates problematic conflicts of interest, two examples validate Trump’s aggressive approach. After a fence jumper got inside the White House in 2014, it was obvious that better perimeter fencing needed to be installed. But doing so involved five public meetings of the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) over two years, as members took pains to ensure the fencing complied with environmental rules. Construction didn’t begin until July 2019.

Or consider the modest Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial near the National Air and Space Museum. Congress authorized its creation in 1999. Architect Frank Gehry was selected in 2009. The NCPC rejected Gehry’s initial design proposal in 2014 before approving a revised plan the next year. The Commission of Fine Arts gave its approval in 2017. The memorial wasn’t opened until late 2020. By contrast, Eisenhower planned and executed D-Day in about six months.

The president has said the project will cost $300 million but that he’s raised $350 million from private donors. The White House released a list of 37 donors on Thursday, including Apple, Amazon, Comcast and Lockheed Martin. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Post.)

Trump joins a long list of presidents who have left their imprint on the White House. Theodore Roosevelt replaced greenhouses to construct the West Wing. William Howard Taft constructed the first Oval Office in 1909. Richard M. Nixon converted a swimming pool into the press briefing room in 1970. The modern East Wing wasn’t even built until World War II to cover up an underground bunker. Harry S. Truman gutted the White House interior and added the balcony that bears his name. Purists decried it. Now it’s a hallmark.

The White House cannot simply be a museum to the past. Like America, it must evolve with the times to maintain its greatness. Strong leaders reject calcification. In that way, Trump’s undertaking is a shot across the bow at NIMBYs everywhere.

https://archive.ph/kNffl#selection-194.0-481.242

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5788764&forum_id=2"#49375902)

*audience retires to the East Wing Octagon for a jam-packed fight card*

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5788764&forum_id=2"#49376056)