President Donald Trump tore down the East Wing of the White House this week to commence a much-needed renovation of the 123-year-old structure that has existed in its current form since the FDR administration. He plans to build a fabulous ballroom in its place.
Doing what comes naturally, journalists and other Democratic activists are losing their minds, reacting as though Trump had personally fired the U.S. Constitution out of a T-shirt cannon into the Potomac River or firebombed the Lincoln Memorial to make way for a Hitler-themed Hooters franchise and crypto-casino.
The weepy tone of the media coverage suggests our nation’s journalists are even more mentally deranged and out of touch with normal Americans than even their harshest critics were prepared to imagine. Meanwhile, the intensity of the Democratic Party’s response—a familiar cocktail of frothing hysteria and mawkish grandstanding—has stunned even the most jaded chroniclers of Trump-induced outrage. Many have wondered: “What the f— is wrong with you people? Do you need a hug? No one actually cares, so it’s probably a good idea to calm down, OK?”
Here’s a particularly insane example: Tara Setmayer, a former Lincoln Project senior adviser, wrote that watching Trump renovate the White House made her feel “almost the same as when I saw the Pentagon damage on 9/11.” Though most probably wouldn’t compare it to 9/11 in a public forum, Setmayer was expressing a sentiment widely shared by her fellow Trump-obsessed liberal activists. In their humble (and definitely not crazy) opinion, this was one of the worst attacks on the American homeland in our country’s history.
The Washington Post complained the teardown of the East Wing had prompted a “massive backlash from historic preservationists and Democrats, who accused Trump of destroying a national landmark.” Trump’s critics seem especially aggrieved that his actions have upset the preservationist community. No s—t, he’s tearing down an old building. Complaining about new construction is basically their only job. Preservationists are also mad at former president Barack Obama for tearing up a poor neighborhood in Chicago to build a hideous monument to himself. At least Trump’s ballroom won’t be ugly, and no one’s going to bother suing him for having an insufficiently diverse construction crew.
The Post also published a scathing column by its art and architecture critic, who cited a Columbia professor who argued Trump’s architectural model of the ballroom was haunted by a “darker history in fascist and totalitarian politics.” Post reporter Dan Diamond wrote a Substack newsletter about what it was like to report on the East Wing teardown. He recounted how one of his colleagues “tracked down worried preservationists” for comment, and another who “trailed construction vehicles to see that they were taking dirt from the White House to a nearby park.” One journalist described the Post‘s front-page headline on Friday—”The East Wing is now only a memory”—as “Unimaginable.”
Stephen Colbert, the former comedian, said watching the East Wing being demolished was like having electrodes attached to his nipples. “That is so deeply upsetting,” he said, fighting back tears. Colbert’s former colleague Jon Stewart UNLOADED on Trump for ignoring the preservationists. The left-wing website Talking Points Memo suggested Trump’s preference for “classical architecture” was a “dog whistle for white nationalists.” The reaction from journalists, observed journalist Ryan Cooper at the American Prospect, has been “surprisingly visceral” because “this is what dictatorship feels like.”
The New York Times and CNN fueled their readers’ sense of indignation by obtaining “dramatic” before-and-after satellite images of the construction site. The Times published an “obituary” for the East Wing, which noted the “outrage from preservationists and Democrats” while paying homage to the “site of offices for every first lady for nearly a half century and the home of calligraphers who prepared thousands of invitations for White House state dinners.” A Times reader bemoaned the “desecration of national heritage.” At the very least, it’s a refreshing about-face from a demographic that spent the last few years cheering the erasure of our “racist” Founding Fathers.
Former Clinton aide Laura Schwartz said there was “never a day I didn’t catch my breath walking into the East Wing,” which is why she was struggling to cope. “It’s not just a building,” she told the Times. “It’s the living history.” She’s right, and if anyone understands the importance of respecting the sanctity of the White House, it’s the Clintons. So it makes sense that Hillary and Chelsea Clinton—but not Bill, for obvious reasons—have come out swinging. Hillary started hocking “NOT HIS HOUSE” merchandise on her PAC’s website, while Chelsea penned a somber op-ed about how Trump was “wrecking a place I called home.”
Neera Tanden, the former Clinton aide who runs the Center for American Progress, argued that images of the East Wing demolition would be a “game changer” in upcoming elections. (Bold prediction: The economy will matter more.) Sen. Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) said the images were so “powerful” because “you are essentially watching the destruction of the rule of law happen as those walls come down.” Trump’s critics have repeatedly condemned his failure to consult with the National Capital Planning Commission, an obscure federal agency that has been closed for weeks because Democrats refuse to open government.
Murphy’s colleagues on Capitol Hill, who have nothing better to do on account of the shutdown, whined at length while gesturing at blown-up photos of the construction. “Here we have evidence of the president tearing down a symbol of our republic and building a symbol that is really a symbol about authoritarian power, about a government that serves the rich,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley (D., Ore.) during a 22-hour speech on the Senate floor. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.), best known for lying about serving in Vietnam, called it “just heartbreaking.”
Maybe this time is different. Maybe this will finally be the thing that convinces Americans to “save democracy” by voting for Democrats and ignoring their insane positions on every other issue. Maybe the libs were bored and just needed a new reason to yell about fascism. They were probably disappointed to find that most Americans don’t share their view that Trump should be nicer to drug cartels. Maybe comparing his renovation to 9/11 will work. Who’s to say?
Daniel Foster, the esteemed political expert, is not impressed. In his view, watching Democrats “spiral about the ballroom is like watching a shipwrecked man guzzle seawater.”
Bless their hearts, the poor things.
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