Maher warns Trump’s $300M White House ballroom signals he’s ‘not leaving’
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“Real Time” host Bill Maher sounded the alarm about the “symbolism” behind President Donald Trump’s White House renovation and revealed what “troubled” him about the demolition of the East Wing.
“The symbolism is that he’s not leaving,” the late-night host told his panel on Friday. “Who would put in a giant ballroom if you were going?”
On Friday, the East Wing, where guests and tourists entered for events, was demolished.
Trump’s plan to build a 90,000-square-foot ballroom is estimated to cost $300 million; He says it was privately funded by himself, several major tech companies, and “many generous patriots.”
CHELSEA CLINTON SAYS TRUMP WILL ‘BE GOOD FOR HISTORY’ WITH THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE WHITE HOUSE BALLROOM
Democratic leaders and liberal media figures condemned President Donald Trump’s groundbreaking this week on the White House ballroom construction project. (Andrew Harnik/Getty)
Although Maher objected to Trump’s demolition, he sparred with former RNC chairman Michael Steele over whether the White House was “just a building.”
“This week we watched as a symbol of this government was destroyed,” Steele lamented. “From our democracy, from our pluralistic society.”
“Are you talking about the White House?” Maher disagreed. “Oh, it’s a building, Mike.”
“Okay, Bill, this may be a building to you, but it’s not a building to a lot of Americans,” said MSNBC’s political analyst.
DEMOCRATS AND OPINIONS IN THE LIBERAL MEDIA ARE SENSITIVE ABOUT TRUMP’S DEMOLITION OF THE EAST WING OF THE WHITE HOUSE FOR BALLOON.
Steele described what it meant to him while growing up in Washington, D.C., calling the White House his “childhood.”
“I’ll tell you this as a young kid growing up in DC: When my dad took me from ‘that building,’ it meant something to me as a 10-year-old kid.”
President Donald Trump will directly announce the name of the upcoming White House ballroom, the White House said. (Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“It was important to me to grow up in a town where everyone in this country came and protested and cried and screamed and laughed,” Steele said. “I was a part of that, too. So that building was my childhood for me.”
WHITE HOUSE RESPONDED TO NEWS THAT TRUMP NAMED A NEW BALLROOM AFTER HIMSELF
Steele later said Trump destroyed the East Wing “without responsibility.” The late-night host said he agreed with Steele on this issue.
“You know, he had to get the permits, but that’s the way he does things,” Maher said. “I agree, but first of all it’s just a building.”
“That part of the building wasn’t always there,” he continued. “Presidents change buildings. Nixon built a bowling alley. Obama turned a tennis court into a basketball court. I can’t be this angry about everything, Mike. I can’t.”
Photo of the White House during President Truman’s renovation. (Harry S. Truman Library Presidential Library and Museum/NARA)
Steele’s fellow panelist, former Biden White House communications director Kate Bedingfield, weighed in on the disagreement.
“If that was the only thing he did, driven by this impulsive, reckless, desire for self-aggrandizement, if that was the only thing he did on that front, then I would give you that it’s just a building,” Bedingfield admitted.
“But it’s not like that. This is part of a style of governance that is tearing apart some of the foundations, the institutional foundations, in this country,” he argued. “And it’s very scary.”
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Similar to his panelists, the late-night host warned at another point in the show that Trump was “drunk with power.”
“What couldn’t President Trump do?” Maher asked.
