Just one in three Americans support President Donald Trump’s move to tear down the East Wing of the White House to make way for his lavish new ballroom, according to a new poll.
The $400 million extension to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, for which the first lady’s offices were unceremoniously bulldozed last year, is a passion project for Trump in his second term.
But his enthusiasm is not shared by the public, with just 28 percent of respondents to the latest Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll expressing support for it.
Fifty-six percent of respondents said they opposed the development altogether and another 16 percent were unsure, those numbers not changing since the question was last posed in October.
Predictably, the poll exposed a sharp divide when broken down along political lines, with just 4 percent of self-identifying Democrats backing the ballroom and 87 percent opposed. That compares with 65 percent of Republicans in favor and just 20 percent taking exception.
The new survey was conducted from April 24-28, giving at least some of those taking part the chance to take into account Saturday night’s attempted attack on the White House Correspondent’s Dinner at the Washington Hilton Hotel, when a would-be gunman attempted to rush the event before being taken down by Secret Service agents.
Trump and his Republican allies on Capitol Hill were quick to use the incident as justification for resuming construction on the ballroom, arguing that such high-profile social galas could be held there in future with greatly enhanced security.
Overground building work for the project has been stalled since U.S. District Judge Richard Leon sided with the National Trust for Historic Preservation in its lawsuit to block it, the justice ruling that construction could not continue without congressional authorization.
The trust has come under pressure from the Department of Justice to drop its suit following the WHCD attack but has so far declined to budge.
“We are not planning to voluntarily dismiss our lawsuit, which endangers no one and which respectfully asks the administration to follow the law,” its president and CEO Carol Quillen said this week.
The cost of the ballroom was set to be met by wealthy private donors but new legislation put forward this week by the GOP senators Lindsey Graham, Katie Britt, and Eric Schmitt would see the expense fall on beleaguered taxpayers instead, if passed.
Trump is unlikely to be deterred by the lack of support for his legacy project, which he frequently raises in public addresses and in conversation with reporters, insisting it has been needed for decades for hosting dignitaries and great occasions of state.
The poll also revealed a lack of enthusiasm for several of his other construction projects, with just 21 percent backing the 250 foot arch he is plotting between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery and 52 percent coming out against it.
Even less popular was his plan to have his face plastered across American currency, with just 12 percent in favor of that gesture and 68 percent opposed.
In response to the survey’s findings, Tennessee Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen, a particularly outspoken opponent of Trump’s branding initiatives, told the Post: “It’s astonishing what’s going on. He has no respect for anybody, any memory, any history. It’s all about him.”
