Donald Trump had a candlelit dinner with his wealthy friends to thank them for giving him money for his $200 million White House State Ballroom project. He also talked about another privately funded project at the same event, even though the U.S. government has been shut down for half a month without a solution.
Trump keeps spending millions of dollars on fancy projects while more federal workers are fired and furloughed workers are still unsure if they will get back pay, even though the law says they should. He had a fundraising dinner in the White House East Room on October 15 with 130 big donors from tech companies like Amazon, Apple, Meta, Google, Microsoft, and Palantir, as well as defense giant Lockheed Martin. Meanwhile, regular Americans are still having trouble with money because of the shutdown.
The ballroom, which is 90,000 square feet, will be the biggest new feature added to the White House since Trump took office for a second time in January. He had already covered the Oval Office in gold and paved over the Rose Garden to make room for picnic tables and umbrellas. But right after the donations for the Ballroom were finished, Trump said he was going to build a monument like the Arc de Triomphe, which would cost a million dollars.
Officially called the “Independence Arch,” the proposed grand triumphal arch has been nicknamed “Arc de Trump” and will be built in Washington, linking the Lincoln Memorial to Arlington National Cemetery. The monument’s inauguration will commemorate the 250th anniversary of American independence in 2026. During the dinner, Trump also showcased a model of the arch and three size options, exclaiming, “I happen to think the large by far looks the best.”
While he is trying his best to portray the constructions as a gift to the country, he accidentally revealed his personal interests while speaking to a CBS reporter, Ed O’Keefe. When he asked Trump who the arch was for, he quickly replied, “Me. It’s going to be beautiful.” (via GovFacts) The monument will be funded with “leftover funds” from the ballroom project, at a time when hundreds of thousands of federal employees are uncertain about their next paycheck.
While some may argue that these projects will benefit future administrations, Trump’s lavish undertakings when essential services in the country are grinding to a halt are nothing more than tone-deaf. As the shutdown continues to stretch on, Trump has again asserted that the government may stop, but his empire never will.
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