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Interesting that Trump would have no problem "upgrading" the White House, but Carney still has problems "upgrading" 24 Sussex Drive. At least no tacky gold fixtures or gold decorations at 24 Sussex Drive, that the White House ballroom will get.


All of Trump’s Tacky and Trollish White House Renovations​


From https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trumps-white-house-renovations-tacky-trollish.html

Aside from adding a Diet Coke button and displaying the occasional Sharpie-scrawled map, during Donald Trump’s first term his changes to the White House were in line with the design tweaks every president makes. But in his second term, the real-estate mogul is bringing his maximalist aesthetic to the White House, adding lots of gaudy décor and plotting grand renovations to the building and grounds.

Obviously, on the list of awful things Trump has done in his second term, adding tacky gold trinkets to the Oval Office ranks pretty low. But the changes, and the taunting ways Trump and his team have shown them off, reflect the broader themes of his second term. It’s like Trump has cast himself in an HGTV show about how to make your home reflect your kinglike abuses of power and quest for revenge.
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A Mar-a-Lago-esque ballroom​


Trump, in one of his least relatable moments, boasted during a White House reception in February, “I’m very good at building ballrooms.” He went on to complain that he offered to build the White House “a beautiful, beautiful ballroom like I have at Mar-a-Lago,” for free, during the Biden administration.

Surprisingly, this might actually be true. Trump has been complaining about how White House state dinners are held in tents for years. In his book Believer: My Forty Years in Politics, David Axelrod confirmed that while he was working in the Obama White House, Trump called to pitch him on building a collapsible ballroom worth $100 million. (Trump’s claims he offered to do this for free, but Axelrod did not address that detail.)

“‘I build ballrooms. Beautiful ballrooms,’” Trump said, according to Axelrod. “Not being much of a dancer, I didn’t know where he was headed. ‘I see you have these state dinners on the lawn there in these shitty little tents. Let me build you a ballroom you can assemble and take apart. Trust me. It’ll look great.’”

In early May, Trump told Meet the Press that he will pay for the “world class, beautiful ballroom” himself — along with donors, of course. “I’m not going to ask the government for money,” he said. “I’ll fund it, and I’m sure we’ll have some donations too.”

On June 6, 2025, Trump took a break from feuding with Elon Musk to announced that he’s surveyed the site for a new White House ballroom, which will finally be built “compliments of a man known as Donald J. Trump.”
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Monarch Butterfly said:
View attachment 670261
See https://t.co/fYztfJspLP

Reminiscent of the ballroom which Trump had built on the grounds of Mar-a-Lago, the historic 1920s-era Palm Beach mansion that is both a private club run by his family’s eponymous hotel and real estate company and his primary residence.

Called the White House State Ballroom, the addition will be approximately 90,000 total square feet, which is significantly larger than the 55,000-square-foot White House.

Renderings show a massive building standing in place of the current East Wing, which serves as office space for the first lady and her staff, and connected to the main White House by an enclosed walkway.

Trump and his donors have said they will raise the funds necessary for the addition, which is expected to be completed "long before the end of President Trump’s term," the White House said Thursday.
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Where's DOGE when it comes to things like this?
 
Monarch Butterfly said:
Interesting that Trump would have no problem "upgrading" the White House, but Carney still has problems "upgrading" 24 Sussex Drive. At least no tacky gold fixtures or gold decorations at 24 Sussex Drive, that the White House ballroom will get.


All of Trump’s Tacky and Trollish White House Renovations​


From https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trumps-white-house-renovations-tacky-trollish.html
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Our politicians are the polar opposite when it comes to the appearance of spending money on oneself. Also, no arm's length government departments to get in the way; the management of the White House reports to the President.

It seems all the players are already in place. No doubt a detailed and open competitive bidding process took place. 🤣

www.whitehouse.gov

The White House Announces White House Ballroom Construction to Begin

Washington, D.C. — For 150 years, Presidents, Administrations, and White House Staff have longed for a large event space on the White House complex that
www.whitehouse.gov www.whitehouse.gov
 
lenaitch said:
Our politicians are the polar opposite when it comes to the appearance of spending money on oneself.
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Because all one has to do is be seen wearing a nice suit or expensive watch and the people jump on it; regardless of things like whether a politician is a lawyer and his wife a successful fashion designer.

Sorry, I should say that's only if one isn't conservative. Then it's okay.
 
lenaitch said:
It seems all the players are already in place. No doubt a detailed and open competitive bidding process took place.
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Wonder if the contractors will be left hanging like how Trump would do on any of his developments.

Versailles was pretty nice during the revolution.
 
Mihairokov said:
Wonder if the contractors will be left hanging like how Trump would do on any of his developments.

Versailles was pretty nice during the revolution.
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Donald Trump is not the one paying the bills for the ballroom. Donors are, with the US government as guarantor in case of default . It's never Trump's money. In fact, I wonder if Trump will be paid for using his name on the project.
 

Corporation for Public Broadcasting will shut down after Trump funding cuts​

From https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/01/media/trump-cpb-corporation-public-media-shuts-down

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced on Friday that it will wind down its operations due to the successful Republican effort to defund local PBS and NPR stations across the country.

The announcement came just over a week after President Donald Trump enacted a rescissions bill clawing back congressionally approved federal funds for public media and foreign aid. Of the $9 billion in canceled funds, $1.1 billion was earmarked for the corporation for the next two years.

“Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, wrote, and petitioned Congress to preserve federal funding for CPB, we now face the difficult reality of closing our operations,” CPB president and CEO Patricia Harrison said in a statement. “CPB remains committed to fulfilling its fiduciary responsibilities and supporting our partners through this transition with transparency and care.”

Officials at the organization, which was founded more than 60 years ago, say they are focused on helping local stations figure out how to cope with sudden budget shortfalls. Harrison has warned that some stations, particularly in rural areas, will have to shut down without federal support.
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Most larger stations have numerous other funding sources, including viewer and listener donations, to soften the blow dealt by Congress. Still, public media executives have warned that the interconnected system will be weakened in various ways without federal funding as a foundation.

“The ripple effects of this closure will be felt across every public media organization and, more importantly, in every community across the country that relies on public broadcasting,” NPR CEO Katherine Maher said in a statement.

Most of the corporation’s roughly 100 staff positions will be eliminated when the money runs out on September 30. The CPB will maintain a small transition team through January to guarantee “a responsible and orderly closeout of operations,” it said in a statement.

The shuttering is a political victory for Trump, who tried several different methods to defund public broadcasting this year. At one point, he tried to fire three of the corporation’s board members, even though he had no authority to do so under the law that created the corporation in 1967.

The corporation went to court to defend its board members, but on Friday, it filed a voluntary dismissal of its lawsuit, in effect acknowledging that Trump has prevailed.

“REPUBLICANS HAVE TRIED DOING THIS FOR 40 YEARS, AND FAILED….BUT NO MORE,” Trump wrote on Truth Social after the rescission bill he pushed was approved by both the GOP-controlled House and Senate.

Even after Trump signed the bill into law, some public media advocates held out hope that federal funding could be restored through the normal appropriations process in Congress. Senators advanced a draft bill without any such funding on Thursday, however, signaling that such a plot twist was exceedingly unlikely.

For Trump and other Republican lawmakers, eliminating the corporation is a successful stand against liberal bias, which they allege is a rampant problem at both NPR and PBS.

For public media advocates, it’s the end of a noncommercial TV and radio era, taking the federal government out of the funding equation altogether.
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“The end of CPB is the direct result of the deep and corrupt failure of Congress and the Trump administration to invest in informing the American public,” Craig Aaron, co-CEO of the progressive media reform group Free Press, said in a statement. “They have trashed decades of democracy-building work and will deny many journalists, artists, educators and creators the opportunity to be heard.”

Aaron expressed hope that publicly-funded media can be reinvented as “a bulwark against authoritarianism that meets the civic needs of all our communities.”

Some station leaders have similarly described this moment as an opportunity to rebuild with more local-level support. GBH, the public media powerhouse in Boston, put up a sign outside its headquarters last month that read “Local. Trusted. Defunded.”

“We’re not backing down” despite the federal funding loss, GBH said in a fundraising push, “but we can’t do it without you. Donate now to keep public media strong and independent.”
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^^Fielty takes on a whole new meaning. Waiting for the Oath of Office for executive appointments to be changed.
 
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