The White House ballroom saga could be worse for Trump than he realizes

President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom saga last week followed a familiar story from the Trump era: A group of the president’s critics raised alarm about his latest provocation (in this case, the sudden and surprising destruction of the East Wing), and another group of people questioned what the event was all about.

After all, he’s just building a ballroom. And the White House needed a ballroom!

The Trump skeptic said, “This must be the stupidest reason to criticize President Trump.” National Review wrote.

The Washington Post editorial board said Trump characteristically “pursued a reasonable idea in the most shocking way possible.” But he praised him for stepping forward and delivering.”a shot across the bow at NIMBYs everywhere.”

It seems like most Americans see a lot to dislike about Trump’s handling of the East Wing and ballroom.

In fact, this seems to be one of the most unpopular things he did in his second term. And it’s not just those who dislike Trump who object.

New Yahoo News-YouGov And Washington Post-ABC News The surveys are the first quality surveys to delve into the ballroom legend. And both show similar things.

The first shows Americans disapprove by nearly 2-to-1 margins of Trump’s demolition of the East Wing (57% to 26%), his plans to replace it with a 90,000-square-foot ballroom (61% to 25%), and his broader handling of the situation (55% to 28%).

Second, it shows that Americans also oppose the broader project by a 2-to-1 margin, 56%-28%.

Even Trump’s supporters don’t defend him too much.

For example, in the Yahoo poll, only 55% of Republicans approved of both demolishing the East Wing and building the ballroom. That compared with 94% of Democrats who disapproved of both. About a quarter of Republicans disapproved of either situation.

In fact, the passion on this issue seems to be quite on the “opposite” side.

In both surveys, the percentage of those who strongly opposed the project outstripped the percentage who strongly supported it; 46-18% in the Yahoo poll and 45-15% in the Post-ABC poll. About half of independents in both polls strongly opposed it.

So this to do It seems to have significantly uplifted people of many stripes.

None of this means this will be a game-changer on a political issue that will cause Trump’s overall approval numbers to suddenly plummet to new depths. But it just reinforces that he continues to do things quite haphazardly, which makes a lot of people dislike what they see – some people even seem to generally approve of him.

An important question that arises from this is why people disapprove.

Is it just because they don’t really like change? Were the images of the destroyed East Wing that shocking? Or maybe people objected to the lack of transparency and Trump’s downplaying of the extent of construction. (Trump said less than three months ago that the ballroom project was “Will not interfere with existing building(Although the White House has released images showing the massive ballroom completely replacing the East Wing.)

These are all valid hypotheses. But the numbers may actually point in another direction.

No matter how you ask the question, people were slightly more likely to object to the ballroom plans (61%) in the Yahoo poll than the demolition of the East Wing (57%), although people disapprove by a nearly 2-to-1 margin.

This is a somewhat intuitive approach.

The destruction in the East Wing was the shocking part. You can see a situation where people might think the ballroom is appropriate and even necessary, but they might not like the East Wing to suddenly be demolished. But actually Americans disliked the ballroom little more than the demolition of the East Wing.

What this might suggest: People don’t particularly like the idea of ​​building a new, privately financed, $300 million ballroom on the White House grounds at a time of significant economic distress and inflation.

Trump has paid relatively little attention to such optical matters. HE The inside of the White House was gilded. He and his family have taken little care to protect themselves from allegations that they ignored conflicts of interest and used the presidency to enrich themselves, particularly through crypto ventures. Trump accepts gifts abroad even as country grapples with fallout from government shutdown Like a golden crown from South Korea.

There are signs that perhaps people are starting to pay attention to this. A. Pew Research Center survey A survey conducted a month ago found that 61 percent of Americans, and even 31 percent of Republican-leaning people, said they believed Trump had at least “probably” used his office improperly to enrich himself, his friends and his family.

A. CBS News-YouGov poll During the same period, 75 percent of Americans said Trump did not focus enough on “lowering the prices of goods and services.”

In other words, it doesn’t seem like a good time to tear down part of the White House to build an expensive place to host parties. And Trump has done a great job of making people realize that’s exactly what he’s doing.

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