What did Donald Trump do today?
He tried to pass off his ballroom as a "military center."
Trump ranted on social media today about a panel of DC Court of Appeals judges who blocked the construction of a "Military Center" in Washington, saying in an emotional 488-word post that "Two Obama and Biden Appellate Court Judges just voted against the desperately needed Military Center, required for the National Security of Washington, D.C., and our Country, itself."
The "Military Center" that Trump is referring to is none other than the ballroom he has been fixated on building since he returned to office. Trump demolished the entire East Wing of the White House—lying about his intentions in the process—in an attempt to force the issue, but has been blocked by courts from proceeding with building the ballroom portion of it.
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| Renderings of the interior of what Trump is now calling a "Military Center." |
Faced with backlash against the destruction of the historic East Wing, and ridicule over his claims that presidents had been desperately pining for a ballroom for over a century, Trump switched tactics and started billing it as a "military top secret ballroom"—that is a direct quote—complete with a bunker hospital and drone ports and various other features theoretically related in some fashion to national security. (Most of these are already present in the White House, which is already fantastically secure.)
But in reality, Trump has not been prevented from constructing the underground portion with all the supposedly urgently needed military facilities. He's only been blocked from building the ballroom portion.
Why does this matter?
- What Donald Trump needs for emotional soothing, and what the United States actually needs, are two very different things.
- Calling a ballroom a "military center" does not transform a ballroom into a military center.
- A president who cared about hardening the White House against national security threats would have just done that, instead of fixating on chandeliers for a year and a half.