Victor Davis Hanson: Trump’s Ballroom Is the Least Damning Thing to Happen to the White House

The Daily Signal

News, Government, Politics, Daily News

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 27 October 2025

⏱️ 8 minutes

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Summary

President Donald Trump’s privately funded plan to build a 90,000-square-foot ballroom has Democrats like Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren fuming about “luxury” while they’ve shut down the government. Presidents have remodeled the White House for over a century—from Harry Truman’s gut renovation to Barack Obama’s basketball court—yet only Trump gets scorn. Victor Davis Hanson breaks down the hypocrisy on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words.” “Do we really want to know what belittles the White House? I mean, we're just coming off the Biden administration, where cocaine was found in a carrel in the West Wing. … Do you remember when Barack Obama was president? He brought in a whole cadre of Muslim Brotherhood people that were tied to Hamas Islamic terrorism. He brought an entourage, in 2012, into the White House. I remember, 2016, he thought it would be neat to have his favorite rappers in the White House. Kendrick Lamar—“Pimp a Butterfly.” Remember those lyrics about killing the police in the White House? That rapper—‘kill po-po,’ as he said. “We could go on with the embarrassing incidents. I won't mention what transpired between Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton right off the Oval Office in the presidential laboratory. But nonetheless, the ballroom was needed. 👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest short videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1⁠ 👉Want more VDH? Watch Victor’s weekly, hour-long podcast, “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” now! Subscribe to his YouTube channel, and enabling notification: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273?sub_confirmation=1⁠ 👉More exclusive content are available on Victor’s website: ⁠https://victorhanson.com⁠ 👉The Daily Signal cannot continue to tell stories, like this one, without the support of our viewers: ⁠https://secured.dailysignal.com/⁠ (0:00) Introduction (3:09) Past White House Renovations (4:37) California’s State Capitol (6:02) Scandals in the White House (7:34) Conclusion Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	For years, decades, maybe over a century, people have complained that the world's superpower has nowhere at the White House to entertain people.
0:09.0	And usually tents are constructed when there's diplomatic or state dinners or there's festivities.
0:15.0	Donald Trump, the builder, comes along in his second term and says, you know what? I'm going to solve the problem.
0:20.0	I'm going to refashion the
0:22.3	east wing of the White House complex and build a beautiful 90,000 square foot ballroom. But people
0:29.4	were outraged. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and the left who have shut down the government
0:34.1	are saying the people don't have enough food or they're not getting paid
0:38.5	and Donald Trump is building this luxurious capitalist, oligarchic, aristocratic ballroom.
0:43.8	And if the senators are worried about the people with less means, then just open the government. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hansen for the Daily Signal.
1:02.5	There's a big controversy that Donald Trump is not just leaving his mark on the country,
1:09.4	but he's leaving his mark on the White House. For years,
1:12.3	decades, maybe over a century, people have complained that the world's superpower has nowhere
1:19.8	at its capital, i.e. executive branch at the White House to entertain people. And usually
1:26.5	tents are constructed when there's diplomatic
1:28.7	or state dinners or there's festivities. Donald Trump, the builder, comes along in a second term and
1:34.6	says, you know what, I'm going to solve the problem. I'm going to refashion the east wing of the White
1:41.7	House complex and build a beautiful 90,000 square foot ballroom, which
1:47.7	will allow 650 guests to eat and be entertained and to have official functions. And more
1:54.9	importantly, I am going to enlist people from the private sector to pay for it along with myself. And the price
2:02.9	will probably be somewhere between 200 and 300 million. The plans are out there. It's perfectly
2:08.2	transparent. There's a list of everybody who's donated. They're not just right-wing donors.
2:13.5	There's most of the familiar Silicon Valley grandees, Apple, meta, etc.
	...

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