Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) said the White House ballroom project was an example of President Donald Trump acting like Marie Antoinette.
Host Kristen Welker said, “I do want to ask you about something that has gotten a lot of attention nationwide. The destruction of the East Wing of the white House. It was demolished to make space, of course, for President Trump’s ballroom. It’s a move that has sparked some backlash from Democrats, even from some Republicans. Former Republican Congressman Joe Walsh said this. I’m going to read you part of it. ‘I will repeat this every single day for the next three years. Any Democrat running for president in 2028 must pledge to immediately tear down, bulldoze, demolish Trump’s ballroom and fully restore the East Wing.’ Is that overstated, or would you agree with that? That any Democrat who becomes the next president, what if and when that were to happen, they should tear down whatever changes Trump makes?”
Gallego said, “No, I think to really mess with him, just name it the Barack Obama Ballroom. And I think that will take care of half the problem.”
Welker said, “So don’t tear it down?”
Gallego said, “This is a distraction. First of all, he should not have done that. It is the people’s house number two. Where is the president? He’s focusing on the ballroom. He’s focused on everything, but he’s not focused on what’s happening right now. Inflation still high. People can’t buy what they need to buy. Energy still high. We have turf wars that are being caused because he feels icky and feels bad about someone talking bad about him in a commercial. And inflation is about to deliver 24 million Americans. And that’s what he cares about. This is Marie Antoinette talking about let them eat cake while Americans are struggling right now. So what I would like to do is to focus on this, to make sure that we could actually get costs down. People can actually make, you know, a good standard living right now and be able to pay what they need to survive instead of in focus on all these little projects which aren’t really bringing anything to the Americans.”
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