Free Republic

A chorus of bipartisan criticism is mounting over the security loopholes at the venue for the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner — while President Trump and his allies insisted Saturday’s shooting proves the need for his planned über-secure White House ballroom. Critics slammed the security loopholes that allowed guests to check into the historic Washington Hilton hotel without undergoing weapons screenings from the outside. Authorities say that’s how Cole Tomas Allen was able to sneak a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives into the building where President Trump, most of his cabinet, and many top members of Congress were mingling...

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) called for Democrats to “drop” their Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) after a shooting at the Washington Hilton Hotel on Saturday, and called for Democrats to support building the White House ballroom.Fetterman shared a screenshot of a Mediaite article from reporter Joe DePaolo about how security at the hotel, where the Washington Correspondents’ Dinner took place, was “awful.” In a post on X. Fetterman expressed that the venue at the Washington Hilton Hotel “wasn’t built to accommodate an event with the line of succession” of the United States government in attendance.

The construction of President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom can proceed, a federal appeals court ruled late Friday night. The judgement came just 24-hours after a lower court judge continued to block above-ground rebuild on the site of the former East Wing. AP reports a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit put on temporary hold the order by U.S. District Judge Richard Leon halting part of the $400 million project. The ruling marks a substantial victory for the president in his effort to redesign the storied American structure. Construction is now expected...

President Trump has championed the U.S. steel industry, promising to strengthen it and to impose stiff tariffs on foreign metals to shield manufacturers from overseas competitors. Yet the White House has secured tens of millions of dollars worth of donated foreign steel for Mr. Trump’s $400 million ballroom project, according to two people familiar with the plans who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive and private conversations. ArcelorMittal, a Luxembourg-based firm that is the world’s second-largest steel maker, is providing steel for the structure of the ballroom project, the people said. They said the steel was produced in...

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s presidential library will be the biggest building in Miami and feature a replica of the ballroom he’s adding to the White House, his son Eric said on Monday. “It’s gonna be the tallest building in Miami, by far the best location in Miami,” he told reporters at the White House’s annual Easter Egg Roll. “The piece of land is incredible and we’re really excited.” The president unveiled dramatic renderings of his forthcoming library last week showing a skyscraper towering over the Miami skyline — with the “Trump” family name illuminated near the top of the building....

🚨 BREAKING: The National Capital Planning Commission just gave FINAL, FULL APPROVAL to President Trump's White House ballroom, after a judge halted construction Full-steam ahead! The judge will LOSE in court and Trump is going to complete this with $0 taxpayer funds Trump RIPPED the organization suing him earlier this week, saying the ballroom is ahead of schedule and under budget

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday blocked, for now, the construction of the new White House ballroom, which President Donald Trump has heavily touted. District Court Judge Richard Leon, in his order, enjoined Trump administration officials and the Executive Officer of the President, “from taking any action in furtherance of the physical development of the proposed ballroom at the former site of the East Wing of the White House.”

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to suspend its construction of a $400 million ballroom where it demolished the East Wing of the White House, barring construction work from proceeding without congressional approval. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington granted a preservationist group’s request for a preliminary injunction that temporarily halts President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project. Leon, who was nominated to the bench by Republican President George W. Bush, concluded that the National Trust for Historic Preservation is likely to succeed on the merits of its claims because “no statute comes close to giving...

Trump says the roughly $400M project is already ahead of schedule and under budget, replacing the old East Wing demolished in October President Donald Trump said Sunday that the military is constructing a "massive complex" beneath a planned White House ballroom, which he said will feature bulletproof glass and drone-proof protections while being funded entirely by private donors... "The military is building a massive complex under the ballroom, and that’s under construction, and we’re doing very well," Trump said.

WASHINGTON — President Trump took a victory lap Thursday after a federal judge allowed his administration to carry on with construction of his prized $400 million White House ballroom. US District Judge Richard Leon, a George W. Bush appointee, found that construction on the epic project was not a violation of a federal law, as alleged by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. “Great news for America, and our wonderful White House! The Judge on the case of what will be the most beautiful Ballroom anywhere in the World, has just thrown out, and completely erased, the effort to stop...

President Donald Trump halted his motorcade at a Florida shopping center Friday morning to buy marble and onyx “at his own expense” for the new White House ballroom, according to the pool report. The out-of-town press pool remained in vans parked near railroad tracks while Trump was inside Arc Stone & Tile in an industrial area of Lake Worth, Florida , located off of I-95., according to the report. Newsweek has reached out to the White House via email Friday morning for comment. Why It Matters Trump said he recently refurbished parts of the White House with marble floors and...

President Donald Trump was sued on Friday by preservationists asking a federal court to halt his White House ballroom project until it goes through multiple independent reviews and wins approval from Congress. The National Trust for Historic Preservation is asking the U.S. District Court to block Trump's White House ballroom project, which already has involved razing the East Wing, until it goes through comprehensive design reviews, environmental assessments, public comments and congressional debate and ratification.

WASHINGTON — The East Wing that President Donald Trump tore down last month stood for decades. The ballroom he’s building in its place could be gone not long after the first wave of guests sit down for dinner, depending on the outcome of the 2028 presidential race. If elected, a Democratic president would have plenty to worry about aside from White House decor; war and peace can easily fill up a day. But a new president may face considerable pressure from within the Democratic fold to do something about a massive new ballroom forever linked to Trump. Already, prominent Democratic...

Anger is brewing over former President Barack Obama’s decision to build his presidential library in the heart of a historic Chicago park. Costing $850 million, the Obama Presidential Center’s construction in Jackson Park began in 2021 and will conclude next spring. The problem is that many locals do not care for the odd-looking building that is his library, invading their community. “Obama, of all people, should not be building a palace for himself, a fortress in the middle of a public park,” famous Chicago-area architect Grahm Balkany, a left-winger, told the New York Post. “It’s just contrary to what I...

<p>Two Republican Kentucky congressmen will play a part in deciding the future of President Donald Trump's White House ballroom.</p><p>The lavish gold-accented ballroom, announced by Trump in July, is expected to cost around $300 million to create and sparked controversy in late October after bulldozers removed the entire East Wing of the White House, raising questions around transparency and legal authority.</p>

There's stupid, and then there's Democrat stupid. Now I don't mean stupid as in low IQ—although there are plenty of low IQ Democrats, the same applies to people from all walks of life. Instead, I mean "stupid" in the sense that one has priorities that don't align with any sane goals, but rather are driven by emotions and desires that bear no relationship to achieving them. There are lots of high-IQ stupid people in this sense. Democrats own a particular brand of stupid these days: emotional incontinence, which is expressed most commonly as Trump Derangement Syndrome. If Donald Trump is...

President Donald Trump’s privately funded plan to build a 90,000-square-foot ballroom has Democrats like Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren fuming about “luxury” while they’ve shut down the government. Presidents have remodeled the White House for over a century—from Harry Truman’s gut renovation to Barack Obama’s basketball court—yet only Trump gets scorn. Victor Davis Hanson breaks down the hypocrisy on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words.” “Do we really want to know what belittles the White House? I mean, we're just coming off the Biden administration, where cocaine was found in a carrel in the West...

The Washington Post's boastful front-page slogan is "Democracy Dies in Darkness." But on today's Morning Joe, Post columnist David Ignatius kept viewers in the darkness regarding his own paper. The show devoted yet another long segment to denouncing President Trump's ballroom project, and in particular, his decision to demolish the East Wing that was deemed necessary. [snip] Ignatius offered a metaphorical analogy of his own: "This is the presidency as wrecking ball." He went so far as to claim that "the destruction of the East Wing has really upset people in a way that even Trump's most outrageous other actions...

It didn’t take long for someone to go to court and attempt to seize control of the president’s White House renovation project.The White House — the People’s House — can’t fit many people in its walls for special events, so it must pitch a tent about one football field away from the building for major functions. Event capacity is capped at 200 people in the White House’s East Room. It has been a problem for more than 150 years, according to the Trump administration. Now Trump is using around $300 million in private money to make the White House more...

A star chef from the show "Top Chef" tried to raise outrage over the demolition for President Donald Trump's White House ballroom renovation, but he was mocked and ridiculed instead. Tom Colicchio posted a photograph he said was from the East Room of the White House, which is being renovated to make way for a large ballroom. "My wife and I in the East Wing. I can’t believe it is gone," he posted on his official social media account. However, as many quickly noted, the photograph was not from the East Room at all, but actually from the Diplomatic Reception...