Washington vibrates. Excavators dig, jackhammers thunder, workers in fluorescent vests bustle among the rubble of the White House. For several weeks, the heart of American power has lived to the rhythm of a titanic project. Donald Trump razed part of the east wing of the residence to build a monumental ballroom of more than 8,000 square meters, capable of accommodating nearly a thousand guests, at an estimated cost of $250 million, partly financed by private donors. An operation presented by the White House as a “historical modernization”.
For Democrats, the symbol is “disastrous”. While the country is paralyzed by shutdown and hundreds of thousands of civil servants are no longer paid, the president is overseeing, with bulldozers, the destruction of a part of American history. They denounce a “delusions of grandeur”A “prestigious construction site”. Trump laughs about it. On October 21, while receiving Republican senators in a Rose Garden recently transformed into a presidential terrace, the former real estate developer joked upon hearing the crash of the machines: “Music to my ears. »
However, this project is part of a long tradition. Truman had the interior of the White House completely rebuilt, Nixon modernized the press room and Ford added a swimming pool. Under Obama, the tennis court was transformed into a basketball court and a vegetable garden was created on the south lawn. The difference today is due to the scale of the project and the personality of the project manager. Trump assumes architectural ambition: building a place “made to last a hundred years”.
The White House lacked, in fact, a reception room worthy of the name. In a notable editorial, going against the criticism of the liberal press which denounces a monarchical drift, the Washington Post came to its defense: “Privately, many Biden and Obama White House alumni have recognized the long-standing need for an event space like the one Trump is creating. It is absurd that tents are pitched on the South Lawn for state dinners and VIPs are forced to use portable toilets.”writes the American daily, owned by Jeff Bezos… himself a major donor to the project.
