Trump is demolishing the East Wing of the White House to build a privately funded $300 million ballroom. It's being paid for by undisclosed corporate donors and is being built without proper regulatory approval. This isn't restoration or renewal. It's a hostile takeover of one of democracy's most symbolic buildings, and when money rebuilds power, citizens lose it.
This is the audio version:
This is the transcript:
Trump is marching on the East.
More precisely, Trump is marching on the East Wing of the White House at present, and that is deeply symbolic.
The White House is the symbol of American democracy in a great many ways. More than the whole of the Congress building, this symbolises to most of the world and probably most Americans, just where power lies in their country, and Trump is tearing it down.
The East Wing of the White House, which has been there for a great deal of time and is fundamentally historic to the role of that building in American society, has already gone, and it's going to be replaced by a privately funded ballroom. This isn't just about bricks. This is about power and ownership, and who really controls democracy now. This is really important. Trump's march on the East Wing is already underway, but we need to think about what it means.
The 90,000 square foot ballroom that Trump is planning is apparently going to cost up to $300 million. He says it's being funded by him and a pile of corporate donors, but as we'll note, we don't really know who they are as yet. And quite critically, Trump has started work on this project before any of the approvals that are required for the existing East Wing to be demolished have been put in place. He's just going ahead as if he has the right to do what he wants with what is, and let's stress this, incredibly importantly, a public building.
The East Wing of the White House is not Trump's, and yet he's declaring it to be his own. He's doing what he wants with it, and he's rebuilding it with private money. And yet the White House is a national institution. Its meaning rests on public ownership and oversight. Private money challenges that symbolism. The people's house, which is what the White House is, becomes a donor's ballroom. Power is moving from citizens to funders as it already has in a great deal of US politics, of course.
And who are these donors? We don't know. There is no full list as yet. There are reports that the list might include Lockheed, Amazon, and Palantir, but I'll be clear, we can't be sure because nobody's stepping up and saying so. And therefore, there's a lack of democratic accountability in this whole process that is going on. And oversight agencies whose job it is to make sure that buildings like the White House are maintained for public benefit have been totally sidestepped or ignored. Transparency has been replaced by private arrangements. The rule of money has displaced the rule of law.
Now, Trump calls this renewal, but it isn't, of course. It's theatre. This is about the politics of spectacle, and it's about standard oligarchical architecture - using buildings to project power and control, something that has been going on for millennia, right back to the Pharaohs, and maybe before.
It's about private wealth funding supposed political legitimacy, which may be built on decidedly hollow foundations.
This is a supposedly grand building, masking hollowed-out democracy.
When leaders build palaces, citizens lose voices.
And let's follow the money because philanthropy is very rarely free. Big cheques buy access, and they buy expectation. What's the expectation? Of tax breaks, of contracts, of favours, of real returns. And we all know that American legislation is riddled with what are called ' Pork barrel clauses', which provide those who sponsor presidential favours with returns on their investment. We don't know that the ballroom has become a lobbying hall. But let's be clear, the fact that it's being funded by private investment in public power makes it look that this is the inevitable outcome.
And the consequences for democracy are significant. A precedent once set is hard to reverse. Future presidents could now do the same thing. There's nothing that's going to stop them trampling all over the White House to do their own fancy projects, claiming that they want to leave their own legacy for the future as well.
Institutions are being turned into corporate projects and vanity symbols for presidents who might go down in history as complete failures.
Public symbols are losing their legitimacy and meaning as a consequence, and democracy is starting to look like it's renting out its own identity. This is the state being eroded brick by brick. Money is replacing mandates of the source of power. And globally, the same story is being repeated.
So what must happen now? We need to know who every donor to this project is and what contracts they're getting as a consequence. We should be demanding - well, I can't, but anybody watching this in the USA can - demand independent oversight for all state buildings. There should be a ban on the private funding of national residences, and not just in the USA, elsewhere as well. We don't want a 'Sponsored by...' over the door of Number 10 Downing Street, for example. We have to protect the public ownership of the symbols of state. Democracy must quite literally own its own foundations.
There is a warning in what Trump is doing for every democracy.
When money rebuilds power, citizens lose it.
The White House ballroom is a ballroom for billionaires. The dance is almost over for democracy. It's time to reclaim the state for people and not donors. So what do you think? Should private money reshape public institutions?
Let us know. There's a poll below. I'll be interested to hear what you think.
Poll
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Buy me a coffee!
Also, Steve Bannon has started talking about a third term! So, it could well happen (if Trump lives that long!).
Trump is basically sh*tting on the USA (as per his recent video), and can do so because A) he has the Supreme Court, and B) Congress is supine in the face of his current violations of the Constitution.
His use of the National Guard and ICE are strong-arm tactics to enforce his will in the face of opposition, hoping to create a reason to invoke the Insurrection Act, and hence suspend elections. Whenever and however Trump departs, he’ll be followed by a Thiel-backed Vance. Even my rather right-wing walking buddy is disturbed by that!
ALL funded by the oligarchic class that has the USA by the nuts at the moment, for whom Trump is really just the front man.
A horrid situation.
This episode clearly demonstrates that, at least in the US but probably more widely in the West, including here, democracy doesn’t need to be defended. It needs to be rebuilt.
It means creating new democratic spaces – participatory, deliberative, locally grounded – that cannot be bought or branded. It means redesigning democracy so it works for an unequal, polarised, digital 21st century rather than assuming the 20th-century model can be revived intact. The political world we thought we knew is over.
To be honest, I don’t give a stuff. Americans may not have voted for this particular “act” (hell – demolish the whole place if it makes him happy) but they voted for an orange child & knew exactly what they were voting for. On some info feeds that I see, farmers (maga core voters) are incapable of understanding that yes – tariffs have stuffed them – but they still wear their mangy hats.
I hope things get worse, much worse & that Uk voters realise that voting in imbecilies/morons/Fart-rages leads to situations that make them materailly much worse off.
Buidlings? I’d cheer if the HoC was demolished tomorrow & I still don’t understand why those well known redevelopers – the Luftwaffe – missed it.
Actually, Mike the Luftwaffe did hit the House of Commons and Parliament moved into the House of Lords and the HoC was rebuilt after the war. Churchill insisted -from what I recall- that it be built too small to seat all the members so that on important occasions it would be full.
IMHO it should be rebuilt on a semi-circle with electronic voting and not having to walk through a lobby like it was still 1895.
BUT one thing I do like is that the PM and Leader of the Opposition can stand a few metres apart and be questioned by elected members. Compare to the US where a White House spokesperson give statements or the President talks to reporters on the way to the helicopter or at a door in Air Force One.
I think that horse bolted long ago in the UK. OK, so No.10 is still state owned, but there was a mass sell off of many lesser public buildings starting in the Thatcher years with them then being leased back. The theory I believe was that the cost of maintenance and repairs would be on the new owners, but of course what has happened is that the cost of the leases rose astronomically and many buildings were not well maintained. Look at the armed forces accommodation for example. Schools have been transferred to academies, local tax offices were leased and then increasingly closed down as a further economy etc etc. Large parts of what are “public” be it buildings or services have been outsourced with the result that everything costs more than it should and in many instances is delivered less well than they were when under full public control.
Should MPs -like footballers- wear shirts with the names of their sponsors?
Ian – that is what the late great Robin Williams suggested- politicians like NAS car drivers with corporate logos emblazoned on their kit.
The strangely named rock group ‘Porno for Pyros’ sums the USA voter I think with this song ‘Pets’ from 1993 I think, lyrics below:
[Verse 1]
Children are innocent, and
Teenagers fucked up in the head
Adults are even more fucked up
And elderlies are like children
[Verse 2]
Will there be another race
To come along and take over for us?
Maybe martians could do better than we’ve done
We’ll make great pets!
[Chorus]
We’ll make great pets!
We’ll make great pets!
We’ll make great pets!
We’ll make great pets!
We’ll make great pets!
We’ll make great pets!
We’ll make great pets!
[Guitar solo]
[Verse 3]
My friend says we’re like the dinosaurs
Only we are doing ourselves in
Much faster than they
Ever did
We’ll make great pets!
We’ll make great pets!
We’ll make great pets!
We’ll make great pets!
We’ll make great pets!
We’ll make great pets!
We’ll make great pets!
We’ll make great pets!
Yes – Trump’s pets, that’s what those who vote for him are.
The song has a beautiful chord sequence by the way.
Thanks Pilgrim
If Richard wants to post
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHMUdiJVitc&list=RDEHMUdiJVitc&start_radio=1
I have often thought that politicians should wear their owner’s name on a lanyard.
Labour used to be fully funded by trade unions prior to 1997, I think.
I actually believe that all political parties should be membership and state funded, but that’s another story.
The more Trump and his lackeys do whilst in power, the more it makes me think they will be going to jail if they ever lose power. They are making themselves prisoners of power, which makes me fearful of them ever leaving. Look at what Netanyahu has done to avoid jail, what will Trump, Miller, Vance, Bondi, even members of the Supreme court do? Trump may well be dead by 2028, but his people are in too deep to let a vengeful administration in with the powers to prosecute and punish their crimes. They have shown us who they are, and we should believe them.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/10/white-house-east-wing-destruction-google-meta-apple-microsoft-amazone/
This includes a link to the list of donors. Tech bros and grifters.
Nobody knows if they’re following any safety protocols during the east wing demolition. Asbestos was used when the wing was extended in the 1940s. They’re dumping the waste on a Washington DC golf course.
As for US democracy, the Republicans are well in with Trump, the Democrats are impotent and the Supreme Court judges are supporting Trump in his demolition of the country’s institutions.
The US is about to start a war in Venezuela for their oil etc., and the Venezuelan Nobel peace prize winner supports the US in the coming war!
Trump’s mental health continues to deteriorate; the guy doesn’t know his arse from his elbow.
Democracy there is a lost cause; it’s not just Trump who’s lost his marbles. The people voted the malevolent orange man-baby in – twice.
I agree with those here who say our democracy has already been taken over by dark money. Certainly Labour have been clearly trying to get rid of their members because they have plenty of money from ‘donors’ and members can be such a nuisance – such as voting for the wrong deputy leader , or wanting fair votes or not to collaborate with those committing genocide.
And the Tories set in train all the sell offs of public assets that Richard and people here have noted.
We are more subtle than Trump – Trump makes a virtue of demolishing democracy in plain sight, as with the White House. We do it partly via the BBC which ‘balances’ truth against opinion and headlines migrant stories and ReformUK every day for three months
It needs a complete clean up of the constitution through some kind of Commission on the Constitution COTC to outlaw all dark money, 2nd Jobs, revolving doors, cash for honours, cash for contracts etc .
But it won’t happen.
It will be interesting to see the style of the buildings. Franco, Stalin, Mao, Ceauçescu all had their domineering, dominating “in your face” building styles. On reflection, so did the mediaeval barons who wanted to show who was boss.
And not just buildings, but people. His, Trump’s, attempt to prosecute, on what, having listened to several U.S lawyers, seems very little evidence of wrongdoing, such notable figures as the Attorney General of New York, Letitia James, and the former Director of the F.B.I, James Comey, proves once again, that if you displease him, he will go after you with all the vindictiveness he can muster. He will attempt to ruin your reputation, and with it, your life.
I would expect the benefits to those donors to become apparent pretty quickly, because it’s more than obvious that Trump doesn’t feel bound by contracts, commitments, statements or oaths that he’s made in the past. Those buying influence are generally fairly intelligent people (however corrupt), so they likely know that their deal with Transactional Trump has to secure an immediate benefit or they’ll do their bit and be left hanging.
Trump was never a good businessman in the sense of building things for societal benefit, or to do things the right way. From the start his style was generally taking huge swings at things, without proper research, and looking at how to leave someone else carrying the loss or the blame if it went wrong, or to avoid sharing the profits when things worked out.
Some of his quickest profits, then as now, have come from rigging markets. It was always really ‘The Art Of The Steal’.
That plays out here, where he had ‘the concepts of a plan’ 😉 for adding a ballroom, then ran with a very different, maximalist idea. He started running, then put his efforts into not paying for it himself to remove his financial downside. If it blows up too much he’ll presumably blame an architect or the construction company for ‘their plans’. If people like the result he’ll downplay any financial contributions and claim the design was all his.
I think one thing that is changing is that the corporate money isn’t doing quite what it used to.
It used to buy influence and if you didn’t pay then you were outside the tent but otherwise neutral
More and more this money seems to be tributes to appease the mad king. It’s not necessarily buying influence but it’s keeping companies in the good graces.
He’ll keep on demanding more money for even more grandiose projects. This wasn’t a project instigated by corporate interests it actually makes them look bad among some of their customers. But they need to show loyalty no matter the cost.
“The question at hand is: Can he do this?
Attorney Ben Meiselas said that anyone with the power to do so should “seek an injunction to block this construction” and that Trump’s actions are “in violation of Article 1 of the Constitution.”
Some have pointed to the fact that the White House is among several federal properties exempt from the requirements of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 “that requires federal agencies to consider the effects of federal projects on historic properties.” ”
The White House’s East Wing is coming down to make way for Trump’s new ballroom
https://www.archpaper.com/2025/10/white-house-east-wing-demolition/