With fuel prices continuing to rise and no end in sight to the nearly three-month-old conflict with Iran, President Donald Trump spent nearly an hour of his time showing off the gaping hole in the White House grounds where he hopes his controversial ballroom project will stand one day.
The president summoned the White House “pool” for the unscheduled appearance at 10:05 am on Tuesday, during what was billed on his schedule as “executive time.”
Reporters were ushered through the building and led to the edge of a cavernous excavation where the East Wing of the building had stood until he ordered it demolished in October to make way for the proposed 90,000 square foot ballroom atop untold levels of secure facilities that will replace the Second World War-era bunker that previously sat beneath the East Wing.
As cameras rolled, Trump showed off computerized renderings of the proposed building’s facade, which he compared to the Supreme Court’s building, which was designed in the Neoclassical style by architect Cass Gilbert more than a century ago.
“There will never be another building like this. I built a lot of great things, but there will never be anything like this built,” said Trump, who then launched into a meandering, repetitive soliloquy about the supposed virtues of the building’s roof, which he alternatively described as both “drone-proof” and the home of a future “drone-port” operated by the military.
He also bizarrely claimed the massive flat roof intended for the military to perch on would give anyone there “a view of Washington” even though the White House complex is bordered on three sides by taller buildings and sits at approximately 50 feet above sea level, an elevation that is roughly eight times lower than the highest point in Washington, D.C.
The president’s madcap ballroom bull session continued on as he claimed, for the first tine, that he was personally financing the project along with donors — even as GOP senators continue to push for a $1 billion appropriation for the ballroom project.
“So, all of this was paid for by myself, and because I keep hearing, like, I'm not - we are making a gift of this, but this is a gift, this is not going to be paid for by the taxpayer. We have a judge that thinks it's a terrible thing that we're making a gift. He said, It's terrible that we're making a gift that should be paid for by the taxpayer,” he said.
“That's one I've never heard before. I'm sure, maybe I don't know, maybe he doesn't understand. This is a gift to the United States of America, and more than a gift, it's going to be one of the most beautiful buildings that's ever been built in the country, or in Washington, D.C."
He also claimed that the $1 billion under debate in the Senate is only meant for “security” purposes including “a lot of things going on downstairs” as part of what he described as an underground complex going six stories deep, including a “military hospital” and other areas, all while denying that he’d benefit much from that project.
“This is really for other presidents. This is not for me. This is my gift to the United States of America. I'm going to be able to use it very little, because when it's finished, we're talking about six or seven months, but we use for hopefully hundreds of years for other presidents, and there will never be anything like this built again,” he said./
Trump’s decision to summon reporters appeared to be the former reality television star’s deliberate effort to offer counter-programming for cable television networks that had largely been covering a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing featuring Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who was at that very moment facing tough questions from senators over the $1.7 billion “anti-weaponization fund” announced by the Justice Department a day earlier.
Blanche refused to commit to denying what could million-dollar payouts to January 6 rioters who were convicted or pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement officers when they stormed the Capitol in a last-ditch attempt to prevent Congress from certifying Trump’s 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.
“Anybody in this country is eligible to apply if they believe they were victims,” said Blanche, who until last year served as Trump’s criminal defense attorney.
