Last week, construction crews tore down the East Wing of the White House in order to build a massive ballroom. The renovation will almost double the size of the historic building and is expected to cost over $200 million. The White House has stated that the ballroom will serve as a large event space and replace the need for a “large and unsightly tent.”
A Yahoo/YouGov poll found that 61% of Americans disapprove of the construction of the ballroom, and a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll found that Americans disapprove by a 2-to-1 margin.
But the White House has been renovated before: in 1902, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt oversaw the construction of the West Wing, which now holds the presidential and cabinet offices; a third floor was added in 1927; and in 1948, President Harry Truman gutted and remodeled the entire White House, leaving only the exterior walls.
If huge construction projects have been completed before, why were there no massive objections to those? The major difference is that in the past, there has always been a rational reason: Roosevelt built the West Wing because he had six children and needed more space than the living quarters at the time could provide; the 1927 renovation was completed because the roof was in danger of collapsing; and Truman’s complete makeover corrected dangerous structural damage from fire and age.
Trump’s plans for a new ballroom have no real rationale; rather, they are a symbol of the power he is trying to wield over the American people. Blueprints for a grand ballroom are terrifyingly reminiscent of monarchical power. The prospect of any part of the White House resembling Louis XIV’s Palace of Versailles is deeply unsettling.
That being said, the construction of the ballroom should be a wake up call. It may be a symbolic renovation, but it is just a renovation. The physical changes Trump makes to the White House cannot and must not become more important than the changes he is trying to make to American democracy.
So, by all means stand up and speak out, but when taking to the streets, do not protest over some drywall and paint. Protest over issues that matter: protest the Trump administration’s attacks on diversity, its cruel dehumanization of immigrants, its occupation of liberal American cities. Do not waste your time protesting this ballroom.
We have bigger problems to solve.
