Bulwark Takes - Court Orders Trump to Stop Construction on His Beloved Ballroom

Episode Date: April 1, 2026

Sam Stein and Will Saletan take on a judge’s decision to halt Donald Trump’s plan to build a massive White House ballroom, Trump’s fixation on the project, how often he brings it up in public, and the bizarre moments where it overtakes everything else—even during major national and global events.

Hey, everyone, it's me, Sam Stein, managing out at the Borg. I'm joined by Will Sout, and this is actually the second video I'm cutting today. We haven't released one of them yet that has to deal with Donald Trump and architectural design. The other one that's coming out is about the impending Trump presidential library. Stay tuned for that one. This one's about the White House ballroom, which is Trump's almost singular obsession these days. And the reason we're doing this one first, even though we recorded the other one, is because we have breaking news. A judge has, as a judge has, as as of Tuesday afternoon, order to halt the construction of the $400 million project. It's estimated to be $400 million. We don't know. It's U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, who disagreed with Trump and his argument that he, the president, has brought authority to make changes to the White House. This is the quote from the 35-page ruling that the judge issued. It says this.

Well, it says, the President of the United States is the steward of the White House for future generations of first families. he is not, however, the owner exclamation point. He went on to say that, he said that, quote, no statute comes close to giving the president the authority he claims to have. Now, Will, if you had to predict how Donald Trump took this news, what kind of adjective would you? Oh, very well. I'm sure, I'm sure he was fully compliant, Sam. You're wrong. Okay.

Donald Trump went to true social. And I don't even know, honestly, this was so fast that maybe he had this in the can. maybe he was just riffing. We don't know. But this is what he wrote on True Social. He said, I'm not going to read the whole thing. It's long. The National Trust for Historic Preservation sues me for a ballroom that is under budget ahead of schedule being built at no cost to taxpayer.

It will be the finest building of its kind anywhere in the world. I think it sued by them over the renovation of the dilapidated instruction on former Kennedy Center. Now the Trump Kennedy Center, yada, yada, yada. It just goes on and on and on. So, yeah, a big setback for Trump. I wouldn't be shocked, honestly, if he just said, screw the judge, I'm going forward with it. But what are your thoughts? Sam, I don't walk by the White House regularly.

And I was just looking at where it is now. And there's just a gigantic hole. And I mean, they just tore down the East Wing. And it's a giant construction site. And I mean, it's classic Trump, right? Tear it down first. Don't ask any questions. And then instead of like a normal situation, like,

normal president might have consulted Congress, right? Which is what you're supposed to do. Or like, consult some other body that's the historic trust or whatever. This guy tears it down first. So we're in this bizarre situation where he's destroyed a thing and there's nothing to replace it. And now he's not, he's dependent on what, the Democrats in Congress to go along with some sort of bipartisan. They're not going to do that. We can have a hole in the ground for the other alternative is just a gaping hole in the ground where the East Wing used to be. be, right? I mean, that's the alternative. Yeah, yeah. I mean, and, you know, what this is, isn't this perfect, though? This is perfect Trump. Like, what does Trump do everywhere? He just goes

around unilaterally tearing things down, right? And then he expects everyone else to clean it up. Like the straight of Hormuz. Yeah, the straight of Hormuz. I'm going to start a war, I'm going to bomb the place to smithereens. And then I'm going to like expect other countries to come in and clean up the Strait of Hormuz. How about the tariffs, right? I'm going to, I'm going to and to go in and erect the world economy, right? Like everybody's got to cut their own trade deal. And then the Supreme Court says, no, you can't. A court, again, says, no, you can't do that.

And now he's all upset. And it's just chaos everywhere because this guy destroys first and asks questions later. Sure. Now, one of the things we like to do here, which is probably unhealthy for us and maybe not journalistically sound, is we try to put ourselves into the head of what Trump is doing and why he's acting this way. And one theory that was posited to me was that Donald Trump is just like any other homeowner who is doing a renovation in that he's like completely obsessed by it.

He's, you know, angry and befuddled at the fact that he has to go through all these ordinances and check off all these boxes and deal with all these obscure authorities. And all he wants to do is just have a house in his image, built the way he likes. And it's very frustrating to him that he can't just do things. And for that reason, maybe that explains his obsession and how angry he is at this. And look, I don't know if you've been there. I've been there. I haven't renovated the East Wing or anything like that.

But, you know, you get like, you get super into the details. You're like, I wanted this pain. I wanted this trim. What the hell's going on? Why is it not around? Do I, dude, is that a sympathetic case for the guy? I don't know. Okay, I'll give you half sympathy. That's as far as I can go. The half sympathy is, yes, as a homeowner, I can relate. So we did a renovation some years ago. And we ran into a similar thing where it wasn't a court, right? But we discovered that we had this plan. It was always going to be so nice. Then, you know, you got the legal ruling. The legal ruling is here's where the property line is. You can't actually put this thing you want to put there. And now you've got to cut it back and like, oh, we went for about it right. So yes, yes, Sam, I can relate.

as a homeowner, except for the part, Sam, where he doesn't own the White House. I mean, it's exactly. Small difference. It's exactly what the judge said. You're a steward, not an owner. Sam, do you think this guy has any conception of what it means to be a steward of, like, a public building as opposed to the owner of it? Well, no, he slaps his name on.

I mean, this is his whole existence. These are not, people have understand. The Trump hotels, for instance, are not. anything but someone else's property with the name Trump slapped upon it, right? This is not like, that's how he's done his business. He brands properties, brands water, brand stakes, brands whatever. And then he acts as if he is the owner of it. And that's not the case.

But there is something, I just like, I don't think we properly appreciate just how obsessed he is about this stuff. So you know the answer to this a little bit, or at least you know somewhat the ballpark. But if you had to guess how many times we went through the art. archives, the Truth Social Post archives, okay? If you had to guess how many times he's posted about this White House ballroom since he's been president, what would you put it at, roughly speaking? Dozens, dozens of times.

I don't know. 23 times, okay? 23 times, okay? That's a lot. But here's the need of increasing stuff. Our research wizards looked at the transcripts and, you know, we're being conservative here. How many times has he mentioned the ballroom in speech? giggles,

interviews, things like that, pool sprays, things like that. If you had to guess, I'll guess another three dozen times. You're pretty good at this,

but you underestimated it. It's at least 50, 50 plus. It comes up randomly. Here's a video. We don't have this video. We're going to play some more video and a thing, but there was a clip that was pulled

where he was doing a gaggle out on the White House lawn. I'm just going to read you the quote. This is verbatim. Peter Ducey is talking to him. This is a Trump quote. I'm guessing it's about, obviously, it's about voting ID and citizenship and things like that. This is a Trump quote.

Quote, we want to have citizenship in order to vote. You have to prove your citizenship. The Democrats don't want to do that. You know why, Peter? You know why? Because they want to cheat, Peter. Now, speaking of something that's more pleasant, see that? It's going to be the greatest ballroom anywhere in the world.

You know, I actually feel better about, you know, men are supposed to always have sex on the brain. Donald Trump clearly does not always have sex on the brain. What he has on the brain is this stinking ballroom that he cannot get out of his mind. We're going to play a video. And this comes up, I just, it's hard to really appreciate it. But this comes up in really weird and unfortunate. This is where it gets serious, right?

So oftentimes there's really serious stuff that is happening around him. He's the president after all. And he's being asked about it or he's being pressed on it. and he'll give kind of lip service to the serious stuff, and then he'll just get lost in the bomb. So let's play this comment from when he, right in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk's assassination. This was sort of infamous,

but let's play it just to give people a sense of how obsessed he is. I can go up as a lot of the defense side. How are you holding up over the last three and a half a bit? I think very good. And by the way, right there you see all the Trumps. They just started construction of the new ballroom for the white. house, which is something they've been trying to get, as you know, for about 150 years. And it's going to be a beauty.

It'll be an absolute and magnificent structure. And I just see all the trucks we just started. So it'll get done very nicely, and it'll be one of the best anywhere in the world, actually. Okay, that's him being asked about Charlie Kirk's assassination and how he's personally holding up. I mean, just remarkable. Now, one more, and then I'll let you talk. Well, this was last Sunday.

or so this was like two days ago. The Iran war is happening. A lot of shit's going down. The economy is cratering the oil. The price of oil is skyrocketing. And he's being pressed about this on Air Force One. And in the middle of it, he just decides to whip out a picture of the ballroom. Let's look at this.

Here's another one. Excuse me. Wait, I thought I do this now because it's easier. I'm so busy that I don't have time to do this. fighting wars and other things. But this is very important because this is going to be with us for a long time. And it's going to be, I think it'll be the greatest ballroom. Anywhere in the world is its highest level.

Same height, exact height of not higher, same height as the White House, exactly the same height. And if you look, do you have the White House over here and you have this? And that's a duplicate of the wall. So it pays total homage to the White House, which is, I think, very important. How do you, what do you make of it? Just for people who aren't familiar, that's Air Force One. Okay, that's not like he's sitting in the Oval Office and he tells Will Scharf to go over. Oh, by the way, I got to tell you something about Will Scharf in a second.

He tells his buddy Will Scharf to go over and, oh, get me that, get me the mock up of the ballroom. No, no. He had it brought on the plane. Exactly. That's the point. He's like, I need this on my plane. He was like, I know we have a war going on. When was that one from?

That was Sunday. That was Sunday. So we got a war going on. We got the price of gas has doubled, right? We got like all this stuff going on. And he says, like, I have to deal with serious things. But he's had his staff bring on these giant pictures of the ballroom so that he can spend his gaggle talking about his architecture project, his favorite thing. But can I take a dig in Will Sharf for a minute?

I'm dying. This is my little research project. Okay. So Trump. Why don't you explain who Will Sharf is? Oh, that's what I'm going to do. Okay, I promise. I promise that I'll explain it. So Trump is complains, and he complains in his truth post, that he's getting grilled by this judge, that the ballroom's getting held up, all this legalese stuff. Meanwhile, Jerome Powell and the Fed get to do their renovation and nobody, you know, as nobody screens them. So I, Sam, I said, you know, let me look this up. Let me see. What did they go? Did the Fed get congressional approval? And the answer is no, the Fed is independent, doesn't have to. But they, They did seek approval from, I think it's called the National Capital Planning Commission, right? And I'm like, oh, they did get approval.

Did Trump get approval? And it turns out Trump is in the process right now of getting approval for the ballroom from the National Capital Planning Commission. And then I see the quote from the chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission. It is Will Sharp. For people who have never heard of Will Sharp, he is the little character. Sam, in Harry Potter, who's the guy who hangs around Voldemort and always like- I should know this because my kid's obsessed. I don't know.

Or Peter Pedigrew. Peter Pedigrew. Thank you. Peter Pedigrew. He's the Peter Pedigrew for Trump. He's the guy who gets, he's the fetch it guy who gets sent to like bring documents to sign. He's just like the, he's the most unctuous little underling. And Trump has put him in charge of this commission that then approves the ballroom.

Just to show you how absurd the whole thing is. Definitely. independent voice on there. He's the one who's like, Mr. Trump, this is the executive order that you've, you know, properly calculated. We'll save America. Thank you for your service. He's doing everything but lick the boots, this guy.

He might actually be licking the boots. We don't know. I mean, some of these bleats, these truth socials that he's put out is just, are just amazing. Like, there's always the pictures that he's putting out. It's the same exact picture that he shows on Air Force One. It's always the same picture. And he's always talking about how the heights are symmetrical and it's going to play great homage. And, you know, he's got this thing about how, well, you know, they have this, the grass gets soggy if you don't have a ballroom and all this stuff.

Did you see the New York Times piece, though, where they talk to architects about how architecturally unsound the ballroom actually is? Did you read this one? Yeah, yeah. But then there was a back and forth where Trump said, oh, that's an old design. Like, it's been changed since then. Oh, yeah. So there's like a whole stage. The whole point is, Sam, all this stuff is going on behind the scenes, right?

Like this is not, this is, as the court says, it's a public building. You're a steward, but Trump's doing this all on his own. So, of course, he tells the journalists, well, you don't know what's going on because none of us know because the president is on his own behind the scenes doing it. Well, that's one thing. And then the other thing, of course, is like, if you just step back, I mean, how absurd is this? I mean, again, you have other things to do. I don't want my president being completely obsessed with.

architecture of the White House and, you know, the ornaments in the ballroom and whether the grand stairs are actually going into columns or an actual entrance and the proper heights. It's like, buddy, we elected you for something other than this. Anything other than this. Just to every voter out there, all you people who said, well, we need a businessman in the White House. What was his, this is his business. It's like, I build things.

He's obsessed with his business. He's turned the job that was supposed to be about helping you. the ordinary American into his, you know, architectural fantasies that he gets to fund because he's the president. And it's not just the bar. I mean, literally on his true social page, right before he put out that post about the National Trust, quite literally the post right before that, around the same time was this. Secretary of Interior Doug Bergman and I are working on fixing the absolutely filthy reflecting pool between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. This work was supposed to be done by the Biden administration, but

Sleepy Joe doesn't know what clean or proper maintenance is. The president and secretary do. It's a reflecting pool, man. It's just a fool. Right. No, he's got to, he's got to do. And he also talked in the Truth Social Post about the Trump Kennedy Center, right, like that. So he's like, oh, I'm going to too well, because I drove all the business out of it because nobody wants it with my name on it.

Trump Kennedy Center, the Colonnade, the Rose Garden, the White House ballroom, the reflecting pool. I mean, it is just nonstop. that's just DC. Yeah. And he said, he said in that post that putting his name on the Trump Kennedy Center was a gesture of bipartisan unity. Those are the words he used in the post today. Like bipartisan, I decided that I would put my name as the sitting president next to the dead president for whom this was a memorial. Right. And that's bipartisan unity. Well, you'd have to have a Democratic president or Republican president. Obviously, that's so stupid. All right, man, I appreciate this. Look, if you're a homeowner out there, you get it. You understand what comes going to do. This is torture. And I feel for the man.

And we can only hope that this injustice is reversed and he can do is no. This is totally how it should work. Well, thank you for this. I appreciate you, buddy. And everyone who watched, thank you for this. I hope you appreciated this. Subscribe to the bulwark where we talk about silly stuff like White House architecture and serious stuff about presidents who need to have better attention spans. Take care.