Versailles It Ain't

 

by Pa Rock

Taxpayer

Yesterday I wrote about Donald Trump's mismanagement of the economy, stressing his mean-spirited tariff's on imported goods that Americans will be paying from our own pockets,  I also highlighted a couple of examples of massive waste which we are also funding, including the one billion dollars (or more) of our taxpayer money that will go into rebuilding the enormous passenger jet that the Qatari royal family "gave" to Trump.  He, in turn, signed it over to the US Air Force so the government could pay for the needed upgrades to turn it into an Air Force One - with the stipulation that the plane is returned to his control (as a gift to his presidential library) just before Trump leaves office.  He will be able to fly in it himself for the rest of his life.  What a sweet gift - thanks, suckers!

In yesterday's blog I also talked about the Secret Service getting the Army Corps of Engineers to raise the water level on an Ohio river last weekend to convenience them as well as Vice President Vance's birthday river float.  There were no canoes or kayaks that had to be dragged across the rocks that day!  Another very sweet deal that we paid for!

Donald Trump may bellow about saving money, but clearly the sacrifices for doing so fall squarely on the shoulders of the little guy, while Trump is off flying the friendly skies and Vance is floating comfortably down the river.

Today I want to talk about another Trump spending outrage.  This one he says will be covered by his rich friends, but this skeptical taxpayer will believe that only when he sees it!

Ever since he assumed office the first time Trump has seemed focused on turning the White House into some sort of white trash Palace of Versailles.  During his first term he gave Melania authority to putter around in the yard, and she redesigned Jacqueline Kennedy'ss famous rose garden by having the roses removed.  Now, in the second term, the once beautiful garden hs been paved over, thus ensuring that nothing beautiful can ever grow there again.  The pettiness is astounding!

But it didn't end there.  Earlier this year Trump turned the South Lawn of the White House into a de facto car lot to help Elon Musk sell Teslas.   He has placed one giant flagpole in front of the White House and another behind it, and the one in the back is so big that it interferes with the presidential helicoter's access to its flight pad.  According to recent news reports, Trump has also liberally splashed gold gilt around the Oval Office and other areas of the White House in an effort to give it the same tacky ambience as his Winter Palace in Mar-a-Lago.   Trump's social insecurity is also astounding!

Now comes word that Trump is planning to add a 90,000 square-foot ballroom to the White House.  That addition alone will leave a bigger footprint than the entire current building.  One news report stated that it will be the size of a football field minus the end zones, and another suggested it would be about the same as adding a Walmart Super Center to the existing structure.  It is also being described in the press as Trump's vanity gymnasium.  And no doubt the whole place will be awash in cheesy golden trappings.

The early estimated cost for the ballroom is a pricey $200 million.

The White House has long been known as the "People's House," and it should stand to reason that if our house is to undergo renovations, the people should foot the bill.  It is "our" house, after all.  But if we foot the bill we might actually feel the need to have some say in the wisdom and necessity of such a project - as well as the design and process for building it.   Donald Trump doesn't really want the peasants having their handprints on his grand, gawdy, golden ballroom, and he has decreed that he will pass the hat and have his rich friends, the oligarchs, pay for it.  And after that, of course, certain people like Jeff, and Mark, and Zuck, and Elon and countless oil company execs will have more actual ownership in "our" house than we do.  (And buying Old Flatterpuss gifts is still a lot cheaper than paying their fair share of taxes!)

A few days ago Trump was spotted walking around on the roof of the White House, adding to speculation that perhaps he has some addition planned for up there as well.  His flunkies managed to rustle several reporters out onto the lawn where they could look up and "discover" the President peering over the edge of the building, so maybe it was just one more way to distract them from the Epstein story.*  

It almost feels like we are the victims of eminent domain or bankruptcy proceedings, and our house is being forcefully taken from us by people by the filthy rich.

I do not believe this President or any President should have the power to order physical changes made to "our" house without the consent of the owners.    A 90,000 square-foot, vanity ballroom should at least require the consent of our elected Congress, if not a direct vote of the owners!

Donald Trump is not Louis XIV (the Sun King) working on his own home at Versailles, nor is he Napoleon,  nor even Jed Clampeett.   Trump is a lease-holder who lives free on the public's dime, and he should make no permanent changes to the structure.  If he needs a 90,000 square-foot room to accommodate his ego, he should begin by discussing it with his landlords - and that would be us!

The White House is "ours," and it is not Versailles!

* (Never forget the awful crimes committed against children by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, and the depraved old men who preyed on those child victims.)