Gavin Newsom has trolled Donald Trump over the news that work will continue on his presidential ballroom through the government shutdown, comparing him to the historical French queen Marie Antoinette.
“TRUMP ‘MARIE ANTOINETTE’ SAYS, ‘NO HEALTH CARE FOR YOU PEASANTS, BUT A BALLROOM FOR THE QUEEN!’ the California governor’s press office wrote on X (Twitter), alongside an AI-generated picture.
The image shows Trump dressed in the 18th-century dress and wig of the French aristocracy as worn by Marie Antoinette, who became a symbol of selfish luxury at a time when her people were going hungry. Newsom has parodied the president’s trademark all-caps posts many times previously.
The Governor’s most recent dig comes after it was revealed that work would continue on Trump’s new White House ballroom despite the shuttering of multiple federal agencies due to the impasse between Republicans and Democrats on a proposed spending bill.
Democrats have demanded the reversal of cuts to Medicaid, set out earlier this year in Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful, Bill,” and an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies.
Marie Antoinette, the queen of France at the time of the French Revolution in 1789, is associated with one of history’s most famous quotes — “Let them eat cake” — which is said to have been her response to being told that her starving peasant subjects had no bread to eat.
Cake was more expensive than bread at the time, and the story is used to highlight the obliviousness of the aristocracy to the plight of the common people. However, historians say it is unlikely that the queen — who was eventually beheaded by revolutionaries — ever said those exact words.
It is reported that Trump’s ballroom will cost $200m to construct. Work on the project will not be stopped, because its funding is not connected to the 2026 financial year enacted appropriation, sources told Fox News.
This is despite warnings from Democrats that both Trump’s bill and a prolonged shutdown will have dire effects on healthcare for many Americans.
As of Wednesday evening, the shutdown was expected to continue as no votes on spending bills are expected until Friday, and senators are leaving Washington D.C. until then, CNN reports.
The Trump administration continues to lay the blame squarely at the feet of the Democrats, with Vice President JD Vance accusing his rival party of taking the country “hostage.”
“What you don’t do is say, ‘Unless you do exactly as we want to do as congressional Democrats, we’re taking a hostage’ — and the hostage, it turns out, is critical essential services that the American people need,” Vance said Wednesday.
Trump is known to be excited about his ballroom. When asked how he was coping with the assassination of his friend Charlie Kirk last month, the president immediately switched the subject to the construction project, saying: “I think very good. And by the way, right there you see all the trucks. They just started construction of the new ballroom for the White House, which is something they’ve been trying to get for about 150 years. And it’s gonna be a beauty. It’ll be an absolutely magnificent structure.”
In his final monologue before being suspended, late-night talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel mocked Trump’s response, quipping that the president was “at the fourth stage of grief: construction.”
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