Loading summary
Transcript12 lines
- [00:00]
A
Hey, everybody, it's me, Sam Stein, managing editor at the Bork, and I'm joined by jvl. We're going to be talking about the East Wing ballroom, which I know this is going to shock a lot of people, so you might want to sit down, grab a glass of water in case you need to hydrate. It's going to cost more than Donald Trump said it was by a significant amount. And even though he said it was going to be paid for strictly by Pride Funds, in his own money, records now show that the taxpayers will be on the hook for more than half of it. I know we're all very surprised by this. This is from the Washington Post, which this morning dropped what I consider like a mini bombshell, if I had to rate it. Tesla's records reveal 600 million estimate for Trump's ballroom project with half from taxpayers. If you recall, JVL, the initial estimate that Donald Trump made was 200 million, then 300 million, then 400 million. Then he said, well, maybe there'll be a little bit of taxpayer money just for the bottom part where we're doing security. 20. Turns out none of that was true, is all bullshit. And who could have foreseen this?
- [01:00]
B
I mean, Sam, originally, the East Wing wasn't going to be touched. Do you remember that? I mean, everything about this project has been a lie. It's like George Costanza is running the White House. Yeah, no, the East Wing's not going to be touched. It's going to be very small. It was a very small, very tasteful ballroom next to the East Wing. And then, well, we do have to tear down the East Wing next. Like, oh, the eastween's already gone. Right. I'm sorry that we have to know. The east wings already gone. And then the bottom kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And if you recall, there were big disputes between. Because the architect behind it was like, sir, so this is. This is way too big. And Trump's like, make it bigger. And computer, enlarge, enlarge, enlargement enlarged.
- [01:50]
A
Yeah. The initial plan was to have it taller than the actual West Wing. And then they're like, no, that's not going to be architecturally sound. So they tried to make level with the edifice, but you were right, there was never. The initial plan was to have an actual ballroom that was adjacent to. And they knocked it down. Now, I should note that the thing is mired in some legal difficulty and political difficulty. So there's been essentially a stop order placed on construction above ground. They're allowing the below ground portion to continue. And then on top of that, as you might recall, after the White House Correspondents association dinner when there was an attempted assassination, Lindsey Graham went to the floor and said, no, we got to pay $400 million taxpayer funds. Let's do it. And a number of Republicans are like, actually, no, that's not, we don't want to do that. So now the question is, well, what comes next? And I actually don't know, like, is there just going to be this kind of gaping hole here? Surely I don't, I don't see how Congress will appropriate taxpayer funds for this. But at the same time, there's this big gaping hole on the White House grounds.
- [02:52]
B
Yeah, I mean, I, I can't tell you how it's going to proceed. I can tell you the different things. That would be funny if it proceeded. It would be funny if Congress refused to appropriate funds. And Trump did like what he has done with the Kennedy center, which is just as fine. I'll leave it and just put a
- [03:14]
A
drape, put a big, that would be very funny over it.
- [03:17]
B
Yeah. Or, you know, maybe have the tarp, have a picture of his face with the, the fight symbol or something so that everybody could see his face when they come to fly into Reagan national, into dca. That would be very funny. But Sam, part of me, part of me hopes they build it because I want the next Democratic president to knock it down.
- [03:38]
A
I was actually going to ask you about that. I was going to ask about that
- [03:41]
B
day one and not even have a conversation about it. Just be like, nope, sorry, we're going to knock it down. Then we're going to rebuild the East Wing and then we're going to pass a law which governs this.
- [03:53]
A
That was what I was going to ask you is what should. So let's assume that whatever they, the next Democrat, the next Democrat president takes office, let's assume it's 20, 29 and this thing is kind of like what, half built? Maybe half, I don't know, whatever. It's not finished. Your advice is just knock the down. And other people have been asking, well, no, we're not going to knock it down because that's just wasting money that we've done. But we're not going to make it a ballroom. Why knock it down? Because it's a corrupt act that led to this place.
- [04:23]
B
So you have to knock it down. Because the message to future authoritarians has to be like the end of Avengers, the end of the Avengers movie when Tony Stark comes out and he says to Loki, look, you can, you can do whatever you want, but you got to understand that it's all on you. There is no throne, there's no end of this where you get what you want. And so will it waste money to knock it down. Yes, but the message has to be to the future aspiring strongman, do what you want. We will knock it down and replace it with exactly what was there beforehand, down to the brick. And this idea of, like, cleverly, oh, well, we'll name it for George Floyd. No, you do shit like that, and then the next guy can simply name it for Donald Trump. You've got to bite the bullet and create the predicate, which is, you want to try to do this stuff, that's fine, but understand that we will knock it down, we will revert back.
- [05:17]
A
Right? I hadn't heard about the George Floyd idea. No, I hear you. I hadn't heard about the George Floyd. I would argue don't do that. And I kind of see where you're coming from. It's like you need to wipe the slate clean. You need to acknowledge that this is what he did. And this is. The other thing is like, and maybe you can, Ray, on this one, I was talking with some friends of mine about all the sort of crazy things that Trump has done, obviously, in his return to office. And I asked him sort of a specific question, like, putting aside the morality of it, the legality of it, just in terms of sheer craziness, like an act that you fundamentally, when you think about, you're like, how could he do that? To me, Knocking down the East Wing actually is the top one because it's not his house. And he just showed up one day and he just bulldozed it. And it's different than like, oh, I'm going to redo the reflecting pool, or I'm going to put my name on the Kennedy center, all that stuff. He literally took a good portion of the White House and was just like, you know what, I don't care if there's laws, I'm just going to knock it down. That to me, is like the stand up batch of crazy step that the administration took.
- [06:24]
B
It shows the degree to which he conflates the state and himself. That's what this is really.