this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2025

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-37

In defense of the White House ballroom (www.washingtonpost.com)

submitted 3 days ago by MHLoppy@fedia.io to c/nottheonion@lemmy.world

18 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Donald Trump vs. the NIMBYs

The teardown of the White House’s East Wing this week is a Rorschach test. Many see the rubble as a metaphor for President Donald Trump’s reckless disregard of norms and the rule of law, a reflection of his willingness to bulldoze history and a temple to a second Gilded Age, paid for by corporate donors. Others see what they love about Trump: A lifelong builder boldly pursuing a grand vision, a change agent unafraid to decisively take on the status quo and a developer slashing through red tape that would stymie any normal politician.

In classic Trump fashion, the president is pursuing a reasonable idea in the most jarring manner possible. Privately, many alumni of the Biden and Obama White Houses acknowledge the long-overdue need for an event space like what Trump is creating. It is absurd that tents need to be erected on the South Lawn for state dinners, and VIPs are forced to use porta-potties.

The State Dining Room seats 140. The East Room seats about 200. Trump says the ballroom at the center of his 90,000-square-foot addition will accommodate 999 guests. The next Democratic president will be happy to have this.

Preservationists express horror that Trump did not submit his plans to their scrutiny, but the truth is that this project would not have gotten done, certainly not during his term, if the president had gone through the traditional review process. The blueprints would have faced death by a thousand papercuts. [...]

Archived: archive.today

top 18 comments

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[–] kingofras@lemmy.world 35 points 3 days ago

So Jeff Bezos does write some articles himself still!

[–] toiletobserver@lemmy.world 33 points 3 days ago

Using private money to build a public building should be illegal. If i did this shit, my city would make me tear down the structure for lack of permitting.

[–] Fondots@lemmy.world 18 points 3 days ago (3 children)

I think (and hope) people are downvoting you just because of the content of the article and not really paying attention to where it was posted.

It's maybe not the absolute best fit for this community, I'm not sure that it's quite crazy enough to be an onion article, although in all honesty that line has become so blurry with how crazy the real world is these days that I can't even say for certain whether the authors intended for this to be a genuine defense of this ridiculous project or some incredible tongue-in-cheek mockery of it.

And to be clear, this project and any defense of it is insane, I get what you were going for sharing it here (or at least I hope I do)

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I'm downvoting because of the paywall

[–] MHLoppy@fedia.io 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Then use the archived link that has been helpfully provided.

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world -5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Oh, the one hidden behind multiple clicks at the very end of the description.

[–] kingofras@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I’ve seen you trolling on Lemmy a few times now. Are you going to keep offloading your own issues on the community or be bold and brave and get some therapy?

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 0 points 3 days ago

🙄

[–] despite_velasquez@lemmy.world -3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Why is defence of it insane? The article makes a good point re: state guests and needing to erect tents to accommodate them.

Genuinely curious

[–] DomeGuy@lemmy.world 13 points 3 days ago (1 children)

In all honesty, "limit the state dinner to who the white house can seat" sounds like a perfectly reasonable alternative to tents.

The home of the national manager doesn't need to be a venue big enough to seat every last member of Congress, the cabinet, the supreme Court, every other statewide elected official, AND a foreign dignitary with their entourage.

If we do need a venue that big, it should either be part of the Capitol or a free standing structure.

[–] despite_velasquez@lemmy.world -3 points 3 days ago

That's a reasonable way to think about it, but what "should" happen and what "does" happen are different.

It seems like historically, state visits happen at the White House, which to me makes a lot of sense given the logistics of hosting foreign entourage.

The US is a world power, part of being a world power is being able to project that power, including through aesthetics, compare the aesthetics of a state visit in the Kremlin and Great Hall of the People vs. hosting in a temporary tent on a lawn.

[+] MHLoppy@fedia.io -9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I think (and hope) people are downvoting you just because of the content of the article and not really paying attention to where it was posted.

Yes, it was my mistake to once again think that people might use the platform sensibly. On the other hand, maybe submitting should continue until platform usage improves.

[–] bradorsomething@ttrpg.network 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

This is a charged issue, people aren’t downvoting you so much as expressing anger at what’s happening. Good use of nottheonion.

[–] MHLoppy@fedia.io 0 points 3 days ago

so much as expressing anger at what’s happening

Downvoting submissions that are appropriate, on-topic, and rules-following to the communities they're in is not using the platform sensibly.

Votes determine people's feeds, and people without the emotional self control to not manipulate other people's feeds for their own emotional regulation make the feeds of everyone else worse and I'm so fucking tired of seeing it. This lack of respect for how voting interacts with what other people see just creates an echo-chamber because the visibility of anything appropriate-but-disliked gets suppressed. Childish tribalist stupidity to sabotage not just one platform, but EVERYTHING connected to it because we're using interoperable federated platforms. To the best of my knowledge, having looked at how both lemmy and mbin process votes, none of the software involved here has sophisticated enough vote processing to enable people to use it in this way.

[–] blave@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago

collapsed inline media

[–] juliebean@lemmy.zip 13 points 3 days ago

The blueprints would have faced death by a thousand papercuts.

then they should have died.

[–] phutatorius@lemmy.zip 3 points 3 days ago

death by a thousand papercuts

Guillotines can be used as paper-cutters.

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 0 points 3 days ago

I think they read the number of guests upside down. as another aside pete segal had a quip about it being illegal because its against the law for metaphors to be a little too much on the nose.