Historic preservation group warns Trump ballroom will ‘overwhelm’ White House

The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell

Lawrence O'Donnell, MS NOW

Policy, Ms Now, Versant Media, Versant, Msnbc, Politics, President, Washington, Congress, Government, Senate, News

4.4 • 5.9K Ratings

🗓️ 23 October 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tonight on The Last Word: The New York Times reports Donald Trump is demanding $230 million from taxpayers to pay for his past investigations. Also, an appeals court hears arguments on Trump’s authority to send the National Guard to Los Angeles. Plus, the majority of Americans say the U.S. is on the wrong track on immigration. And Trump’s presence looms large over the New Jersey governor’s race. Ezra Levin, Harry Litman, Sen. Alex Padilla, and Brent Johnson join Jacob Soboroff.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The last word starts right now with Jacob Sobraff in for Lawrence.
0:03.8	Hey, Jacob, I'm so happy to see you sitting in that chair on the other side. Jen Saki, what's up? It was so, so good to see you at MSNBC Live. I had so much fun with you. And you know what? It felt like to me a little appetizer for the No Kings Day protests. Totally. It was kind of perfectly timed. It was so good for the soul and just a reminder of the
0:23.5	importance of community and seeing people in person. And it was a smaller, much smaller version
0:28.3	of the No Kings protest of sorts. But it was very fun and powerful and soul giving still.
0:35.2	I saw you at Ezra on last night and I had a phone most.
0:38.3	We're going to talk to him in just a little bit, but I'll let you go and I'll see you tomorrow.
0:42.0	Great.
0:42.4	I'll look forward to watching.
0:43.2	Have a great show.
0:44.6	All right, Jen.
0:45.1	Thanks so much.
0:47.6	On the 22nd day of the government shutdown with millions of Americans hurting, Donald Trump
0:53.6	continues to take a
0:55.1	wrecking ball to the White House. Today, we know that Trump lied about the project and that the
1:00.3	entire east wing of the White House is being torn down to be replaced by Donald Trump's
1:05.1	$250 million ballroom project. It won't interfere with the current building. I won't be.
1:11.3	It'll be near it, but not touching it.
1:15.6	And pays total respect to the existing building, which I'm the biggest fan of.
1:20.6	He's the biggest fan of it.
1:22.0	The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit agency created by Congress to protect and preserve historic buildings,
1:29.7	warned this, quote, we are deeply concerned that the massing and the height of the proposed
1:35.0	new construction will overwhelm the White House itself. We respectfully urge the administration
	...

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