While Minneapolis burns and tensions escalate after ICE executed Alex Pretti, President Donald Trump spent his Sunday throwing a tantrum on Truth Social about… his new White House ballroom.
And he made sure everyone knew what really matters to him by pinning that message to the top of his feed.
WHAT’S GOING ON: The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued to block construction of Trump’s massive ballroom after he demolished the East Wing last year with little notice. Now a federal judge is considering an injunction, and Trump is losing it.
“There is no practical or reasonable way to go back,” Trump whined. “IT IS TOO LATE!”
He called the preservation groups “so-called ‘preservationists’ who get their money from the most unusual of places” (classic Trump—vague insinuations, zero evidence) and insisted that “a President has never needed permission to change or enhance” the White House “no matter how big (and important!), that enhancement may be.”
THE DETAILS: This vanity project comes with a price tag of up to $400 million, supposedly funded by private donations. Who’s donating? The White House won’t say. What do they want in return? Also not answering. The ethical questions are piling up while the administration stays silent.
Trump defended his demolition of the East Wing by claiming it had been “bastardized” by previous renovations and called the new ballroom “a great, big, beautiful gift to the United States of America.”
He also let slip that the lawsuit has exposed “top secret” information, revealing military and Secret Service involvement in the project—likely related to replacing the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (the underground bunker Trump famously hid in during 2020 protests).
OF COURSE: Trump’s obsession with this project has reached comical levels. Earlier this month, he literally interrupted a White House meeting with oil executives to wander over to a window and stare at the construction site. The man cannot help himself.
BUT BUT BUT: U.S. District Judge Richard Leon seemed skeptical of the administration’s legal authority during last week’s hearing and will decide on a potential injunction next month. Trump’s “IT IS TOO LATE” screaming suggests he knows the legal ground is shakier than he’d like.
WHY IT MATTERS: A president is demolishing historic structures to build himself a palace while Americans are dying in the streets. He’s accepting hundreds of millions in anonymous donations for a personal project while refusing to answer basic transparency questions. And when challenged, his response isn’t to address concerns—it’s to throw a fit on social media and pin it so everyone sees.
The priorities couldn’t be clearer.