While tens of millions of Americans are on the cusp of financial ruin in the midst of a deadly pandemic and a deepening recession, Donald Trump is demanding $377 million to renovate the White House, a project he should play no part in — considering his gaudy interior design tastes.
As we all know, Trump’s Manhattan penthouse is gold-plated, looking more like a palace owned by a tyrannical dictator in the Middle East than an American residence. Even the toilet is gold-plated.
Does the same fate await the White House?
Trump has a knack for sticking his nose into places it does not belong. He’s so desperate for everything to be about him that it would not be surprising if he did try to dictate how the White House will be renovated. After all, he chose to get rid of the traditional Air Force One design that has been used since the Kennedy administration in favor of a flamboyantly over-patriotic red, white and blue color scheme.
In fact, Trump had wanted a staggering $1 billion for the renovation.
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According to the Chicago Tribune:
While lawmakers, including Republicans, have balked at the administration’s request for more than $1 billion in the bill for a new FBI headquarters in Washington, the West Wing plan has drawn relatively little scrutiny. The administration says the White House work would ‘increase the White House campus’s ability to detect, mitigate and alleviate external security and pandemic threats.'”
Of course, the White House has been due for an upgrade for years now.
The West Wing has not had a full modernization since 1933, according to the General Services Administration, which maintains most of the White House complex and would handle the upgrades. Renovations have been planned and delayed by previous administrations — most recently by President Barack Obama in 2013 — in part because no president has wanted to temporarily give up the Oval Office for months or longer to allow for the substantial work to be done.”
But, again, the question is whether this renovation should occur while Trump is in office, and Americans decidedly would rather the renovation be put on hold until Trump is gone, and certainly not until the recession and pandemic are behind us.
In the latest coronavirus relief bill, Trump wants $377 Mil to renovate the West Wing & Melania wants $$$ to refurbish the Rose Garden…this, as Mil’s of Americans are losing their homes, their healthcare & their jobs..all due to Trump’s narcissism. https://t.co/hBCcMIiXH9
— Rula Jebreal (@rulajebreal) July 30, 2020
and the republicans will blame the next POTUS when we’re broke AF. All the while they pretend the $12 trillion bank bailout never happened under their watch.@GOP
— millers (@eris_) July 30, 2020
To match his wife’s rose garden and tennis pavillion and kidneys.
— Jane Shay Wald (@janefourmillion) July 30, 2020
He thinks our tax dollars are his private piggy bank!
— mimi67 (@mimi67) July 30, 2020
He’s going to strip everything of value from the house & grounds before he steals Air Force One and flees to Russia to escape all legal consequences. Mnuchin’s already got their golden parachute money lined up, god knows he gave people as little of the PPP money as he could.
— C. B. (@CarefulBookworm) July 30, 2020
The contracts will go to some cronies and he’ll get kickbacks. The same way US taxpayers paid $33 million per mile of his “wall” (fencing), when earlier administrations got it done for a fraction of the cost. He and his family are conmen. He’s fleecing the country.
— I am Mimi (@BackwardsNever) July 30, 2020
“Hey all you poor, dying people, I want to paint the White House gold”
— Uniwolf 🦄🐺🥀 (@Cancertarius) July 30, 2020
This demand comes on top of Melania Trump wanting to renovate the historic Rose Garden, which she claims is an effort to “preserve” it. But the Trumps have never been honest about what they are doing in the White House. They will insist that changes are needed and that they won’t do anything to destroy tradition. But that’s simply been untrue throughout Trump’s presidency as he has violated every norm and shirked every tradition possible. The White House and the surrounding grounds are no different, and the next president should do whatever it takes to get the orange stains out so Americans can move on as if Trump’s presidency never happened.
Featured image via Flickr/White House, under Creative Commons license 2.0
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