Wednesday, October 22, 2025

What Goes Up Will Come Down

 I’ve seen the list of supposed donors to this disaster. I say “supposed” because I don’t believe anything this White House says, and fully believe Trump is tapping federal funds (especially with no public accounting being presented).

DOD funds?

Either way, what goes up can come down. The next POTUS can easily request funds from Congress to bulldoze this nightmare. It will certainly be cheaper than the construction (which will top out above $300 million. Wonder if Trump goes back to the donors for the overage? Whaddya think?).

The donors are the usual suspects; companies buying very short-term gain, since Trump’s power is likely to diminish sharply in 2027, and end altogether early in 2029. They don’t care about the investment long-term. In fact, they probably already have their ROI. Besides, even $300 million is just a rounding error for any one of the donors, and none of them has donated that much.

Trump wants to build monuments to himself, to leave his mark on D.C.  But Trump hasn’t learned the lesson of Ozymandias, nor of all the monuments that fill D.C.  They require years of planning, approval, and construction. He wants to build an “Arc de Trump” for the 250th anniversary of the country, but that’s only months away. He might get a half-sized plaster model erected in that time, but he can’t place it without approval from several quarters. Remember the Epstein-Trump statue he ordered removed? It was; and then it was put back, because the permit for it was lawfully granted and lawfully enforced.

Trump can’t lawfully destroy the White House; but as far as I can tell, that’s Congress’ problem. (Perhaps some government agency could sue to stop the ballroom. But they’d probably all be immediately fired.) Erecting monuments is another matter altogether. The same agency that dare not challenge the ballroom might tie up any monument in red tape long enough for Congress to change hands.

Voters aren’t really going to care about this (although the sight of the east wing being destroyed for Trump’s vanity project is a visceral one). Not as much as they care about the price of meat; or Trump promising to import cheap beef to drive the price down (and demand the ranchers say “thank you.”* Trump won’t do anything but annoy the ranchers. Argentina accounts for 2% of beef imports. Twice that (Trump’s promise), is still nothing. But Trump thinks he’s lowered the cost of groceries and gas. So he’ll pat himself on the back and tell ranchers to thank him for “saving them.” And declare the price of beef down, even though nobody else will see it.)

Which will mean a lot more in a year than the ballroom which probably won’t be completed before it’s razed.

That said, I won’t deny the power of images:

And it’s pleasant to think daily pictures are driving Trump nuts. Yeah, that Marie Antoinette look is not going to help, either. Any more than the "delusional grandpa" elicits sympathy.
Trump: It was a very small building, and rather than allowing that to hurt a very expensive, beautiful building that frankly they've been after for years… It will be one of the great ballrooms of the world
That'll be a winning sales pitch in this economy.

Mari Antoinette didn’t actually say “Let them eat cake,” but Trump is delusional enough to do it. And congratulate himself in the process.

Popehat gets the last word:
I for one think the Epstein Ballroom will be magnificent. I love the decor theme of “what if Uday Hussein ran a Ramada Inn.” And giving it a theme song everyone will associate with it is a stroke of brilliance! “Thank Heaven for Little Girls” is very catchy.


*In case you thought I was exaggerating:
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