After paving over the Rose Garden and spray-painting the Oval Office Gold, “That Man in the White House” (as my grandparents used to call FDR) has demolished the East Wing of the White House to put up a 90,000-square-foot ballroom that will look like Cecil B. DeMille’s idea of God’s bathroom. The East Wing started out as a terrace in the early 1800s, rebuilt by Teddy Roosevelt in 1902 and constructed as the East Wing in 1942 by his nephew Franklin (he, too, came under criticism, for wasting money during WWII). It eventually served as the First Lady’s headquarters, also including a visitor's entrance, a Presidential family movie theater, and space for social events. The ballroom will be funded by such companies as Apple, Amazon, and Meta, who I’m sure will not be asking for any favors in return. Trump first came to public notice when he demolished the 1929 art deco Bonwit Teller building on Fifth Avenue to construct the Trump Tower.
