The hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” called President Donald Trump’s abrupt destruction of the White House’s East Wing last week, which was done to make way for his new presidential ballroom, an “apt metaphor” for Trump’s entire presidency to date — and a move to expand his donor base.
“The president one week says, ‘We’re not going to touch the East Wing.’ The next week, he destroys that half of the White House that has been home to such history,” host Joe Scarborough observed Monday, noting how Trump’s actions flew in the face of his previous comments about the ballroom’s construction plans. “No other president in our lifetime would have even thought about doing this just on instinct, so abruptly.”
“Let’s be clear, the vast majority of events that size, that could be held in a ballroom of that magnitude, would be for wealthy donors,” co-host Jonathan Lemire told “Morning Joe” viewers. “That’s who this would be [for]: People buying access to the President of the United States.”
“Donald Trump doesn’t care because right now, in this Republican-run Washington, he does exactly what he wants to do, and they’re too cowardly to do anything about it,” Scarborough added, in reference to the zero pushback Trump’s destruction of the White House’s East Wing has received from Republican representatives from the House and Senate. Scarborough’s sentiments were echoed by “Morning Joe” guest and Washington Post columnist, David Ignatius.
“This is the presidency as wrecking ball. I think that’s one reason that destruction of the East Wing has really upset people in a way that even Trump’s most outrageous other actions haven’t,” Ignatius said. “We think of it as the People’s House. It was built deliberately to be understated. It’s not a palace like victorian rulers have had. It’s the People’s House. And Donald Trump has turned it into his own personal property, or at least he behaves that way.”
You can watch the full “Morning Joe” segment yourself in the video below.
Ignatius added that he believes people are not actually upset about Trump’s intent to build a new ballroom for the White House, but rather how he has carried out his construction plans.
“There are lots of reasons why we need a ballroom,” Ignatius remarked, addressing his fellow “Morning Joe” panelists. “You’ve been to events at the White House that were held in tents, and you could make a good argument that we do need some space, but not done this way. Not done in secret and contrary to the way it was described.”
“Trump seems to have learned nothing from this,” Ignatius concluded. “But I do think lots of other people watching this have learned a lot, and it’s going to continue to bother them.”
