The White House ballroom will never be built
Trump can't focus long enough, even on his $400 million passion project
In October, Donald Trump traumatized all true patriots by tearing down the East Wing of the White House. The move, he claims, will clear the way for a ballroom for holding large events that are typically held in tents on the South Lawn. A debate immediately arose online over whether or not the next Democratic president should tear down the ballroom or keep it, albeit with the necessary extensive renovations to remove all the tackiness Trump brings to any project.
Two months later, it increasingly seems that such discussion was a wasted effort, as the chance this ballroom will actually be built is rapidly disappearing. Perhaps it could have if Trump had delegated the management of the project to someone competent, but that’s not what he did. Instead, the famously lazy and disorganized president decided to blow off his actual governance duties in favor of micromanaging a construction project he is incapable of handling. Finishing the ballroom in the next three years would be difficult for anyone, but it’s quickly becoming clear it will be nearly impossible for the famed real estate tycoon to pull it off.
The whole thing is a too-perfect symbol of Trump’s second administration: They are very good at breaking things, but they don’t know how to create anything of value.
https://www.salon.com/2025/12/19/the-white-house-ballroom-will-never-be-built/Open linkView original on lemmy.world
I bet they can't get any contractor to work on that, because the Administration has already stiffed the demolition crew and nobody wants to touch a job they will never get paid for.
You need to remember just how stupid some of his base is. There are pickme's out there who will 100% jump at the chance and think surely Trump won't stiff them.
I'm actually amazed how he keeps finding new suckers after decades of doing it in the private sector and almost 10 years of doing it as President. The only ones that really came out ahead are the criminals that bought their pardons. Everyone else gets screwed one way or another.
Same here. Even back in 2010 and 2011 when I first started to look him up I was surprised that anyone could have trusted him or taken him seriously once the 90s rolled around. He should have been remembered as that conman from the 80s who is barely hanging onto life financially today.
He was always that shadey “businessman”, but that stupid reality show really put him back in the spotlight.
Maggie Mae Fish did a cool retrospective on how terrible The Apprentice was.
It’s why he has “the worst fucking lawyers”
The average American is very dumb. He has a large lot of rubes to stiff.
And half are even dumber than the average (assuming assumed assumptions).
A lot of the work is shoddy. The businesses doing the work have some kind of quid pro quo. Financing is involved, so the real bag holders will be lenders pitched a job they can never collect on.
There's a lot of different ways to pass the bill around in the modern economy, such that landing a $300M job on-paper can be leveraged to cheat and swindle people down the line.
10 years doing it as President?
He announced his intentions in 2015, so it's a cromulent statement.
Not to mention his whining overshadowed anything Biden had going on administratively. This, it's been about about that idiot for a decade...and is still ongoing.
Not implying he was President during the Biden years. I guess I meant as a prominent politician.
On a personal level sure, but this isn't a job for a random one man operation.
At the top level you need a business and as much as business leaders love Trump (who doesn't love a useful idiot) they would never risk their bottom line for it.
All that and the fact that you would likely need a whole bunch of credentials to be building parts of the white house, or at least you likely used to.
Actually on second thought I'm an idiot.
If he actually builds that stupid ballroom he would have to pay for it. Much easier to just take the donations and leave a hole in the ground.
How could I not see such an obvious grift.
Not to mention, did we ever find out what happened to all the stuff that had been in the East Wing?
Hell, I heard that the Resolute Desk had been spotted at Mar A Lago...
He'll just hire a Russian firm. No security issues there.
Presumably the current requirements begin with Russian language skills
So many faces offering themselves to the leopards
The secret service still has to let them in though. That might narrow the field quite a bit. At least if the secret service hasn’t been gutted and filled with lackeys that is.
I wanted this to be true... https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-east-wing-demolition-congress/?collection=471833 Unfortunately it's not
Wow, when did snopes become an absolutely adfucked shithole. Besides, as far as I can tell that article is focused on Congress stopping the payments being false, not whether or not they've actually been paid, which wasn't clear to me.
I wonder what a demolition crew does if you don't pay them. Other tradies will typically just rip out their work, but it's not like a demo crew can easily rebuild something they tore down.
Maybe that's Trump's big plan: don't pay the demolition crew, and hope that they build a massive ballroom in protest.
LMAO
A demo crew could keep working by mistake.
Most contractors put a lien on your house.
Thats silly. Its a lot of extra work, and a crime.
They would file a lien on the property.
...so they can get paid when the property is sold? Just when do you think that's going to happen?
Thats how it works, yes.
So the property that hasn't been sold in 200 years. That's the one you want to put a lien on? Would you like a shit sandwich to go with it so you at least get something?
I'm a big fan of "you paid us to remove your shit, you didn't pay us, here's your shit/equivalent of your shit back"
That doesn't mean he hasn't stiffed them, just that particular story about congress blocking funds is fake.
That asshole hasnt paid any bills in decades, i cant believe anyone is still dumb enough to accept a job for this conman.
Well you see there are still plenty construction contractors that happen to be republican.
And the very fact they are republicans means they never think anything is real or possible until they personally experience it first hand.
There is a bottomless barrel of idiots for trump to screw over because he hasn't personally fucked them all...yet
Also, you try finding a construction crew on the east coast he hasn't personally stiffed already
Maybe he can order the army corps of engineers to do it.
Instructions unclear they installed a dam
Or the insert red state name here National Guard.
For real? They didn’t pay the demo crew? Or os this speculation?
I bet the "I bet" at the start of the statement was meant to indicate that it's not for real, just an example of one of the myriad things Trump has done over the years that might lead a contractor to be wary of taking on a job for him and which would be good rationale to avoid being next in line to be burned.
I'll take your bet but I want terrible odds
But have you considered building it for exposure?
The fact that Trump just randomly tore down part of the White House still makes me laugh.
Wait until you see the shit stains on the constitution.
True patriot.
We need to start calling this Trump’s Folly everywhere and for now on.
Typical fascists. It's all grandiose and talk. If one reads the history of Nazi and fascist policies, they tend to wing it. Fascism is a reaction and antithesis to rationalism. In that sense, why would they have a plan at all? Okay, maybe with Heritage Foundation, they have a plan, but overall it is about regression which ultimately doesn't make sense apart from being an emotional reaction to caring about lgbt, migrants and social welfare.
100% this. All they can do is break. Never create.
All they can create is ways to attach their names to things others have built.
Weaponized pre School sandcastle destroyer mindset
That's because he isn't building a ballroom.
This reads as way too competent a plan and scheme for Trump's admin.
I can't decide which is scarier, that Trump's admin is so incompetent they can't build a ballroom, or competent enough to plan and build a project like this while hiding it from the public
Too competent for Trump, absolutely. But there are some pretty scary competent people behind him, whispering in his ear. As the video details, the people he's hired to work on his "ballroom", also happen to be some of the world's leading experts on building super secure, military grade data centers. There's not a lot of overlap between those things, so it's hard to imagine that it's just a random coincidence.
Project 2025 is 50% executed. There are some competent people pulling Trumps strings.
LOL.
If you wanted a secret underground-anything why would you put it under the freakin whitehouse?
... and of all things a data centre, which would work the same if it were under sydney harbour, or you know... not underground at all, or well... just any of hundreds of existing data centres.
The article does give a reason, it says it's to allow "executive oversight." As if Trump is going to waddle on down there and work on the servers himself.
That's super thin. Plenty of things have executive oversight and are not physically under the white house.
That's opposite of the logic suggested. The logic is that anything at the pres. place must be theirs. "Is there anything at / under the white house that is -not- under executive oversight?" is the relevant question.
I dont really follow.
I mean i bet Trump loves that Saudi plane, but that's not at the white house?
There's much better places to keep important things.
I think it makes the case much stronger if it's literally at his house. What if some gov. bureau decides they should have oversight on this data center?
There are lots of things not at the president's house that he still has oversight over, but but it's only some things. However, he does have oversight over everything at his house (I presume, as a knowonothing). It would break tradition to have some other gov. agency to oversee something at the president's house.
That's the implication I draw when asking "why is this datacenter at the WH?". Not that I think it is a good or correct argument. Just one they would use.
I dont really understand what you're saying.
Suffice to say, IMO its unlikely to be a data centre, but you're welcome to continue thinking that's what it is if you wish.
Exactly, why the hell would they put it underneath the whitehouse itself? There's already a bunch of existing underground infrastructure there that they would need to work around and all to put their super secret datacenter under the single most likely to be bombed building if the country were ever attacked. Even if they wanted a new datacenter it would make way more sense to build it offsite and just tunnel a few deep redundant data lines to the whitehouse.
As far as the whole secure underground datacenter thing, we already have them. Nobody I know has ever been inside it but Google runs a secure underground datacenter somewhat near where I live. It's basically a bunker full of servers burried deep into bedrock exactly like that "article" talks about. Most people don't even know it's there. I only know it exists because I know one of the guys that worked on some of the specialized HVAC equipment for it. Of course thats the only one I personally know about but I highly doubt it's the only one in the country.
The 14th amendment being nullified by SCOTUS won't provoke much more than some peaceful protests that, at least around here, get minimized by the media. People like my neighbor, a Mexican-American (who fought in Iraq), will be using their dual citizenship to leave, but that's about it.
There's even less chance that even a Trumpenbunker will be done by then.
Fascinating read, thanks for that.
would this even work in dc? the water table is so high, one of the reasons they didn't build a more extensive bunker complex in the 50s it's impractical to build anything and then keep it from flooding.
Good luck getting hardware in this market
You can buy anything with a bottomless pocketbook
Especially if you never intend to pay for it. Trump's classic playbook is to look at a completed project and say 'It's not good enough, I'm not paying for that.' and then out-lawyering the contractors in endless court cases.
I got two sticks of DDR4 they can buy for $2000. Heck, I'll even knock it down to $2500.
Not sure why she shoehorned crypto in there.
Because data centers also make great crypto mines. And guess who's currently trying to build their very own crypto empire?
Nah. Crypto mining needs specific asic hardware. AI needs completely different chips.
None of Trumps meme coin grifts require Proof of Work.
ASIC tech is used in both AI and crypto mining. The reason they work well together is because of the power and cooling infrastructure required for both. Most data centers are designed and equipped to handle either / or.
No no. The specific ASIC chips used for bitcoin mining are useless for anything else.
Also Mining rigs use less energy, don't run hot so require less water than AI GPU servers.
I think you're missing the point. Data centers can run whatever chips you want. It's not about the specific chip...it's about the power and cooling systems needed to run them. You can set up a data center to run anything, in any combination.
You miss the point. Trump is not covering up a $300m operation with a shoddy ballroom story to run some bitcoin mining hardware. He can host those machines anywhere.
The writing of tether and paxos (not bitcoin) are ruining a decent article.
Trump has a track record of not paying people. Even court records to prove it. Blows my mind the demo team agreed to do this and now they’re not getting paid. No money, no worky
Man who failed at casinos unable to build ballroom. Who could have forseen this!?!?!
Didn't it start out under $100 million?
It started at $200M and as “not affecting the existing structure” and will end as a $900M donation to the Trump presidential library, which will also not be built.
Plot twist: the Trump Presidential library is built in place of the East Wing
Plot twist 2: The library will only be a small shelf because Trump is effectively illiterate and he will pocket the rest of the money.
In a just world the library would be filled with the Epstein files and all of his executive orders with explanations about how they were illegal attempts to legislate from the oval office.
Instead, it probably going to be scrap books of under age girls he raped, a bible (for photo ops while holding it upside down), and Mein Kampf for anti-virtue signaling.
That actually seems completely plausible
Oh, wow, really? Now I do wonder where all that money will end up...? Hmmm, I bet he will just return it and definitely not pocket it! Oh, no.
Not unexpected. He handed all kinds of government jobs to the terminally incompetent.
We can't have elections in the middle of a ballroom renovation!!
I think there's a pretty good argument laid out in this video that the ballroom is a literal cover for a bunkered database
https://youtu.be/VbJ4ilDvGyc
Can't watch the video now, but why build it next to the white house instead of literally anywhere else?
Executive privilege, potentially.
So he vandalized the Whitehouse for nothing?
No, he did it as a grift. I'm sure most of that money has already disappeared into his bank accounts.
They're building a new Fuhrerbunker for Vance and the next one. Trump doesn't even know.
"There is no real direction here, neither lines of power nor cooperation. Decisions are never really made – at best they manage to emerge, from a chaos of peeves, whims, hallucinations and all around assholery."
Oh... now it's $400 million?
$400 million SO FAR!
Maybe the ext elected will finish it at record savings, under a billion.
Was actually wondering about this the other night.
Are there any pictures of the current state of it? I kind of assume they just half tore down the east wing and then wandered off.
But, regardless: This was always a scam. Even if they build something, expect trump and his cronies to pocket the vast majority of the money that was supposed to be dedicated to it. Wouldn't be shocked if it just collapsed the first time a hurricane reached DC.
Is it grift? I wonder if it's grift. Nah, he's too upstanding of a guy to do that...
Lupus?
Crazy, you're telling me it was always a distraction? As a side note; It's nice to see that his taste in interior design always looks identical, no matter what. He's really committed to the overly gaudy, B-rated, villainous anime aristocrat archetype. It's the one thing he's weirdly consistent about.
They can get a phallic shaped rocket from Bezos. I wonder who is going to supply the volcano lair?
Did he "forget" to pay the contractors?
Yet they'll still come out richer than ever, what a world.
This lady has a good video about it. https://youtu.be/VbJ4ilDvGyc
It is really ease to tear things down, much harder to build things up.
FAKE NEWS! Trump ALREADY destroyed the White House so it 100% WILL be Built! Otherwise he would Have DESTROYED the People's House for Nothing and as a RED BLOODED AMERICAN PATRIOT that would Upset me! UNLESS Trump is ACTUALLY doing that Then it's OK and that massive Hole in the White house is EXACTLY what it Needed! I'm a Free Thinker TM!
Yes, yes. That's a terrible shame, I'm sure.
Nah he'll build it, he said he finds this kind of work soothing. The world can burn down and he'll be happy as a clam in his old real estate ways and gold trim. This is what he wants to be remembered for, fancy buildings.
Say what you will, Salon gives good copium.
It wont change anything about the political calculus of the country, which is well and truly fucked, but it's a lovely café un croissant anyway.
idgaf about the white house
Uhh idk about this article, it meanders randomly around various failings of the president (sure) but building a big room in 3 years with a ton of money available seems totally doable
It's doable if you're not constantly changing the plans. The issue appears to be that he keeps changing things about it. Every plan or rendering they've released is different and it keeps getting bigger with each iteration.
AI isn't good at making minor changes to an image
I hope anyone who experienced this trauma can get the psychological help they clearly need.
I hope you can get the softness of heart and openness of mind that you clearly need as well.
My softness of heart is used to feel the pain of the many, many victims of the US government, and my openness of mind is used to understand their perspective. If you possessed either, you wouldn't mourn over a symbol of imperialism.
What are you some weird pedophile enabler
Because I don't clutch pearls over the destruction a piece of a building that was built by slaves and occupied by imperialists and pedophiles, that makes me a "pedophile enabler?"
You're the type of leftist everybody hates, clutch your Pearls as hard as you can, I don't even think you're real I think you're Russian, being paid to troll and manufacture dissent online
You're right. How could it be otherwise? Everyone loves America. A real leftist would watch a child talking about how they've come to fear sunny days because that's when the American drones fly, and would belt out, "I'M PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN, WHERE AT LEAST I KNOW I'M FREE!" It's literally inconceivable that any actual American would look at all the needless deaths caused by everyone who's sat in that building since, well ever, and would experience anything but trauma at seeing part of it torn down.
It's genuinely sickening to me that any of you liberals, clapping like seals when bombs are dropped on innocents because the news says it's ok, thinking of yourselves as "true patriots," and shunning any and all alternate perspectives, abjectly refusing to read any sort of theory - that any of you actually think that you're some kind of "leftists."
It's wild how liberals managed to become even more deranged and self reinforcing than the fascists
Oh thank you Professor, your analysis is stunning and your work will be cited for many years on🤣🤣🤣