The Tenant from Hell

 

by Pa Rock 

Citizen Journalist

The White House, the primary residence of Presidents of the United States and the office complex for their top officials, is commonly referred to as "the Peoples' House" because it belongs to the people of the United States of America and not to the building's temporary tenant.  Modifications have been made to our house over the past two centuries, yet those changes have not been done willy-nilly at the demand of the tenants, they occur after a thoughtful process that is accomplished by several of our fellow stakeholders in the property.

Last month the Trump administration quietly orchestrated the demolition of the East Wing of the White House without any official authority to do so, and most of the structure was in rubble before the American public, the owners of the property, were made aware of its destruction.  Trump has said that he was going to erect a ballroom capable of accommodating 1,000 guests in the area next to the East Wing and that the new ballroom would not actually have physical contact with the Wing.  He lied, of course.  Not long after that statement was made, the entire East Wing was bulldozed to the ground.

Part One of Trump's dastardly plan was achieved.   With the East Wing gone, he could proceed with Part Two, the construction of the actual ballroom, but again, with no input from anyone other than Trump and his family and cronies.  His nod to the public was that he would fund the project entirely through donations, presumably from his oligarch, billionaire buddies - all of whom benefit from doing business with the US government.  (The American public did not need a say in the matter because they were not paying for this monstrous addition to their home, he and his rich pals were footing the bill.)

All of that, of course, is not the way things are supposed to work.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a privately funded non-profit organization designated by Congress to protect historic sites.  The National Trust should have been consulted before a third of the White House complex was intentionally destroyed, and now they are suing to block the Trump administration from constructing its vanity ballroom until the Trust has time to evaluate and act on the matter.

The National Trust filed a lawsuit this past Friday in the US District Court for DC asking the the project be stopped by the Court until a standard federal review for building projects could be completed and public comment on the proposed changes have been sought and collected.   In other words, if you want to modify the People's House, first you go through a review process and then the public is given an opportunity to have its say on modifications to Our House.

In its legal complaint the Trust states that plans for the project were not filed with the National Capital Planning Commission as required by federal law and that it failed to get an environmental assessment or impact statement as required by the National Environmental Policy Act, and that construction was not authorized by Congress.  

Trump is a builder.  He knew there was a process to go through before tearing down one structure and replacing it with another, there always is.  He simply chose to ignore the process and bull his way through without any official approval.  

The complaint filed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation states - in part:

"No president is legally allowed to tear down portions of the White House without any review whatsoever. - not President Trump, not President Biden, and not anyone else.   And no president is legally allowed to construct a ballroom on public property without giving the public an opportunity to weigh in."

The lawsuit is asking that all work on the project cease immediately until all necessary reviews have been completed and all approvals have been acquired.

For anyone who is blissfully unaware of the havoc that a bad renter can cause, please consider watching the film "Pacific Heights" (1990), a deeply disturbing look the hell that a pair of idealistic young landlords (Matthew Modine and Melanie Griffith) unleash upon themselves when they rent their dream home to absolute worst renter imaginable (Michael Keaton).

The White House does not belong to Donald John Trump.  It is ours.  He is a tenant on a four-year lease, and right now he is clearly the tenant from Hell - and he makes Michael Keaton look like a lightweight!

Impeach and evict!