Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
One of the things I’ve always liked most about the White House is its size. It’s grand but not grandiose. It was built to be the president’s mansion, not a king’s palace. It’s a perfect reflection of an American ideal.
But for reasons I’ve loved the White House, the President finds it inadequate. It’s not currently palatial enough for his taste. The current White House, roughly 55,000 square feet, will now be dwarfed by a 90,000 square foot ballroom added to the East Wing. This will permanently change the building’s structure and its character.
While the President claims the ballroom is needed to host State Dinners, I’ve never heard anyone say the tent set up for such occasions is “unsightly.” Trump isn’t doing this because what’s already there is inadequate. He’s doing it as a part of a larger strategy to impose his fingerprints on everything he can get his hands on. Trump wants us to forget the America that existed before he got here. This is not a president who respects our history; his wish is to rewrite it.
Earlier today I drove past the WH and saw the new flag poles the President has installed. The normal sized flag pole has been replaced by two gargantuan flagpoles, each 100 feet high, with those oversized flags you often see in front of car dealerships. So much for the simple grandeur that used to say so eloquently who we are.
And have you seen the Jacqueline Kennedy Rose Garden since it’s been paved over? Grass is just so yesterday.
So will be our democracy, if we don’t raise hell. Our voices are the only power we have to stop construction on the new ballroom. But public pressure matters.
Write a letter to an editor. Make a video. Create a meme. Spread the word. Write your Congressmen.
We are all so tired of this, I know. But they’re counting on our fatigue to quiet us. We must not go down this way. The White House as a building is just a symbol, of course, but it’s a symbol that matters. And unless we are willing to stand up for what matters, our very lives no longer do.
One of the things I’ve always liked most about the White House is its size. It’s grand but not grandiose. It was built to be the president’s mansion, not a king’s palace. It’s a perfect reflection of an American ideal.
But for reasons I’ve loved the White House, the President finds it inadequate. It’s not currently palatial enough for his taste. The current White House, roughly 55,000 square feet, will now be dwarfed by a 90,000 square foot ballroom added to the East Wing. This will permanently change the building’s structure and its character.
While the President claims the ballroom is needed to host State Dinners, I’ve never heard anyone say the tent set up for such occasions is “unsightly.” Trump isn’t doing this because what’s already there is inadequate. He’s doing it as a part of a larger strategy to impose his fingerprints on everything he can get his hands on. Trump wants us to forget the America that existed before he got here. This is not a president who respects our history; his wish is to rewrite it.
Earlier today I drove past the WH and saw the new flag poles the President has installed. The normal sized flag pole has been replaced by two gargantuan flagpoles, each 100 feet high, with those oversized flags you often see in front of car dealerships. So much for the simple grandeur that used to say so eloquently who we are.
And have you seen the Jacqueline Kennedy Rose Garden since it’s been paved over? Grass is just so yesterday.
So will be our democracy, if we don’t raise hell. Our voices are the only power we have to stop construction on the new ballroom. But public pressure matters.
Write a letter to an editor. Make a video. Create a meme. Spread the word. Write your Congressmen.
We are all so tired of this, I know. But they’re counting on our fatigue to quiet us. We must not go down this way. The White House as a building is just a symbol, of course, but it’s a symbol that matters. And unless we are willing to stand up for what matters, our very lives no longer do.
