"We don't ride bicycles in Iowa."

Joe Mitchell: "Thank God you're building the ballroom. Thank God you're getting rid of those awful bike lanes. We don't ride bicycles in Iowa." https://t.co/pMkgvYZhv0

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 23, 2026

Is a ballroom more of a motorcycle thing or a bicycle thing? Seems to me motorcycling and bicycling go together more than either fits into the world of ballrooms. 

"As a special treat in honor of President Xi and Madame Peng, I’d like to invite everyone in the room to visit through that beautiful curtain in the back door."

"It’s all lit up and looks beautiful. It's one year away from completion, the new ballroom that you've heard about, and you will see something that you will really love. Presidents have been trying to get this built for 150 years that I can tell you that, tonight, if we had it, we would have had way more than a thousand people, standing room only, and this room has about 145. That's about it. So they've been looking for this for over 150 years. All Presidents. And they will shortly have it. So, in honor of you, you’ll be the first people to step foot on that, and we’ll do that maybe after we’re finished with the entertainment tonight. Anybody who wants to walk into a construction site that’s nice and clean and sparkling, it’s our honor to have you do so, but this is in honor of President Xi, Madame Peng."

"'I am the code,' Trump said."

I'm reading "'I am the code': Trump clashed with ballroom architect over safety issues/James McCrery II resigned in October after warning that the president was insisting on designs that violated fire and safety codes" (WaPo)(gift link).

White House renovations and construction are typically handled by federal agencies required by law to comply with nationally recognized building safety standards to the “maximum extent feasible,” unless doing so would present a national security risk. But Trump’s White House construction projects are being routed through the Executive Residence, a tiny office that is not a federal agency and is therefore exempt from rules governing agencies.

"Trump is going to get his ballroom — even if courts conclude it’s illegal."

Said lawprof Leah Litman, quoted by Adam Liptak in "Trump’s 'Lightning Speed' Outpaces the Courts/In his breakneck construction of a grand ballroom and in many other initiatives, critics say, the president has tried to outrun judicial review" (NYT gift link).

When the ballroom case was argued before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in June, Judge Patricia A. Millett asked... If the government were to move very quickly to bulldoze the Statue of Liberty... was it true that “nothing can be done” by the courts? 

Yaakov Roth, a Justice Department lawyer, did not try to duck the question. “I think that’s right, yes,” he said.... 

When the case reached the Supreme Court last month, the challengers warned the justices that Mr. Trump had “decided to try to outrun judicial review.” In response, Solicitor General D. John Sauer did not exactly deny the charge. He crowed that a 250-person crew had been working 20 hours a day, seven days a week, and that the project, which he said included key security upgrades for the White House, had passed the point of no return....

It's in the structure of things that the Executive has speed as a tool. Remember when Justice Robert Jackson quoted Napoleon — "The tools belong to the man who can use them"?

"The Supreme Court on Friday temporarily allowed President Trump to continue construction of a luxury White House ballroom to replace the East Wing he demolished last fall."

The NYT reports.

In a one-sentence order, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., acting on his own, issued a place holder that gives all nine justices additional time to more fully consider whether construction of the planned 90,000-square-foot ballroom can proceed. The chief justice’s order did not provide a timeline for when the court would act next, stating only that a lower-court ruling against the Trump administration was paused “pending further order of the undersigned or of the court.”

"The White House is the People’s House, and under the Constitution’s Property Clause, Congress exercises plenary control over the building and its surrounding land."

"The White House is also the centerpiece of President’s Park, a National Park stewarded by the National Park Service. According to the government, as the oldest public building in the District of Columbia, the White House is the crown jewel not just of President’s Park, but also of the Lafayette Square National Historic Landmark District, a site listed for preservation in the National Register of Historic Places. The founding architect of the Nation’s capital, Pierre L’Enfant, designed the capital city’s layout to focus on the towering Capitol building—the gleaming palace of the people in the new democracy—and to contrast it with the simple humility of the White House.... Each President is a temporary tenant, not the owner, of the White House and its Executive Residence.... Over just three days in October 2025, without undertaking promised consultations or obtaining Congress’s permission, President Trump bulldozed the entire East Wing in order to construct a massive, 90,000 square-foot ballroom paid for by private funds with no congressional oversight...."

I'm reading National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States v. National Park Service, the new decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

And here's WaPo's report: "Trump says he’ll bring ballroom fight to Supreme Court after lower court halts work/An appeals court ruled earlier Friday that construction must stop until Congress authorizes the project. The ballroom is among the president’s top priorities for this term" (gift link).

Trump's reaction, at Truth Social:

"On Saturday night, May 23rd, a shooter once again sought to murder the President, his family, and his staff at the historic White House complex."

"We submit this urgent filing to update the Court on a second attempted assassination on the President within a single month. Last night, shortly after 6:00 p.m., an armed assassin approached a White House security checkpoint near 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, professionally pulled a high caliber gun from a bag, and opened fire in the exact direction of the White House. Brave Secret Service officers returned fire. The gunman was killed...."

From the Notice of Supplemental Authority in Support of the Government’s Motion for an Indicative Ruling Dissolving the Court’s Injunction, filed yesterday in National Trust for Historic Preservation v. National Park Service, the case about the White House ballroom, posted by Trump at Truth Social this morning.

"What a welcome and much-needed reminder of a President who valued art, beauty, and decency. A glaring contrast to the garish, self-serving chaos of the current one."

Says one commenter at the NYT article "The Audacity of Art at the Obama Presidential Center/Barack and Michelle Obama commissioned 30 artists to create work for their campus, which starts visitor previews next week on the South Side of Chicago."

That's a gift link so you can see the photos of the artwork inside the building, which I think is quite good, and so you can gaze at the "View from the Sky Room" photograph that shows a view from the building, looking out through one of the letters of the text from an Obama speech that you can attempt to read if you stand on the ground and gaze upward at the building.

The view from the Sky Room is garish chaos, but the chaos seems designed to give ordinary citizens a place to play, that is, it's not trying to look good, it's trying to offer what can be used. Included in the play equipment is an N.B.A.-size basketball court and a "sledding hill." We'll see how much freewheeling tomfoolery unfolds in this space. The message is casual playfulness for the people, and it is in distinct contrast to the design ideas Trump has been imposing on the White House and elsewhere. His message is grandeur and elegance.

"The ballroom is, to the confusion of many, a top priority for Trump. Indeed, it has been one since long before he launched himself into politics."

"Way back in 2010, Trump called David Axelrod, at the time a senior adviser to President Obama, and offered to build a ballroom for the White House. The offer was not accepted. Barely two weeks into his second term, Trump began talking up his ballroom dream once again. Within months, he had demolished the East Wing of the White House and construction was set to begin...."

I'm reading "What Does the Correspondents Dinner Have to Do With Trump’s Ballroom Project? The case may test just how far national security deference by the courts to the executive can stretch" (Lawfare).

"On this occasion, I cannot help noticing the readjustments to the East Wing, Mr. President..."

"And I'm sorry to say that we British of course made our own small attempt at real estate redevelopment of the White House in 1814."

It's funny now.

Who will be around in 2213 to joke about the destruction of the World Trade Center?

"This was an event dedicated to freedom of speech that was supposed to bring together members of both parties with members of the press. And in a certain way it did..."

"I saw a room that was totally unified. It was in one way very beautiful — a very beautiful thing to see."

Said President Trump, in an impromptu press conference at the White House, 2 hours after the incident at the Correspondents' Dinner. 

I hope that shared experience brings people together. Perhaps there will be a reset and love will steer the stars: "In light of this evening's events, I ask that all Americans recommit with their hearts to resolving our differences peacefully. We have to resolve our differences. You had Republicans, Democrats, independents, conservatives, liberals, and progressives in that room — a big crowd, record-setting crowd. There was a tremendous amount of love and coming together." Come together, right now, over me.

Trump saw the opportunity to promote his ballroom: "We looked at all of the conditions that took place tonight. It's not a particularly secure building. I didn't want to say this, but this is why we have to have all of the attributes of what we're planning at the White House. It's actually a larger room and it's much more secure. It's got drone-proof and bulletproof glass. We need the ballroom."

Trump framed the incident as an assassination attempt: "This is not the first time in the past couple of years that our republic has been attacked by a would-be assassin. In Butler, Pennsylvania, less than two years ago — you all know that story. And in Palm Beach, Florida, a few months after that, we came close again. We had some great work done by law enforcement."

Trump expressed pride in himself as the target of multiple assassination attempts. Asked "Why do you think this keeps happening to you?," he said "I've studied assassinations. The most impactful people, the people that do the most, are the ones they go after. Abraham Lincoln, the big names. I hate to say I'm honored by that, but we've done a lot. We've changed this country. There are a lot of people that are not happy about that."

"But Trump’s urge is toward gigantism, not grace. This is as true about his ballroom... as it is about the proposed arch."

"It is, simply, un-American. It is even, in its derivative way, un-French, since the Parisian instances are, at least, right-sized for their place and their purpose. If it were ever to be built, future generations would dream of its demolition. Its injury to the democratic spirit is too large to contemplate, and would be too hard to look past, even from a distance."

Writes Adam Gopnik, in "Donald Trump’s Triumphal Arch and the Architecture of Autocracy/When asked by a reporter whom the arch would be for, Trump said, 'Me'" (The New Yorker).

Is gigantism un-American?

"A federal appeals court on Friday allowed construction to continue on President Donald Trump’s new White House ballroom until June, just a day after a federal judge halted progress."

NBC News reports.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post has just come out with an "analysis" of the quantity of Trump's "fixation" on building the ballroom: "Trump’s fixation on White House ballroom is increasing, Post analysis finds/The president has publicly highlighted his ballroom project on roughly a third of the days this year."

That's a gift link, so you can check to see how WaPo measured the mind of Trump. 

"A federal judge set new limits on President Donald Trump’s planned White House ballroom, saying construction could proceed only on an underground portion of the project deemed necessary by the military..."

"... and not on the 90,000-square-foot aboveground addition that Trump has eyed to entertain VIP guests. 'National security is not a blank check to proceed with otherwise unlawful activity,' U.S. District Judge Richard Leon wrote Thursday. He said the Trump administration could also take steps to secure the construction site to make it safe for people on the White House grounds...."

WaPo reports.

"A federal judge ordered on Tuesday that construction be halted on President Trump’s proposed White House ballroom... saying work must come to a stop until the project receives a go-ahead from Congress."

The NYT reports.

In a 35-page opinion, Judge Leon wrote that Mr. Trump likely did not have the authority to act without consulting Congress to replace entire sections of the White House — changes that could endure for generations.

We're told there are 19 exclamation points in the opinion.

From Trump's response at Truth Social:

[A]ll I am doing is fixing, cleaning, running, and “sprucing up” a terribly maintained, for many years, Building, but a Building of potentially great importance. Yet, The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a Radical Left Group of Lunatics whose funding was stopped by Congress in 2005, is not suing the Federal Reserve for a Building which has been decimated and destroyed, inside and out, by an incompetent and possibly corrupt Fed Chairman.

"President Trump is the best builder and developer in the entire world, and the American people can rest well knowing that this project is in his hands."

Said a White House spokesman, quoted in "Trump’s Ballroom Design Has Barely Been Scrutinized/Architects Say It Shows" (NYT)(gift link because there are some detailed graphics).

Also quoted is Carol Quillen, the president and chief executive of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which is suing over the ballroom. She says: "Even if we are slow and we make mistakes and we fight, that process has meaning to us."

Have you ever paused to contemplate the meaningfulness of red tape? Maybe the deliberation and drawn-out procedure is subtly, secretly the very best part of what we do together, the very heart of democracy. 

"It makes me happy. When I hear those pile drivers — my wife doesn't love it — but I love it. I love the sound of concrete. I love the sound of pile drivers."

PETER DOOCY: "When they're doing the construction, does it ever wake you up?"

PRESIDENT TRUMP: “It makes me happy...my wife doesn't love it."

"I love the sound of concrete, I love the sound of pile drivers." || @pdoocy pic.twitter.com/4MDWmwdTCw

— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 20, 2026

"Corinthian is the highest order, and that’s what our other two branches of government have."

"Why the White House didn’t originally use them, at least on the north front, which is considered the front door, is beyond me."

Said Rodney Mims Cook Jr., "the Trump appointee who chairs the Commission of Fine Arts, a federal panel charged with advising the president on design matters, said in an interview last week," quoted in "Appointee wants to replace White House columns with the ones Trump prefers/The head of a federal arts commission is proposing the more ornate Corinthian style for the nearly 200-year-old columns at the building’s front entrance" (WaPo)(gift link, so you can see the drawings showing the number and location of the longstanding Ionic columns and the Corinthian columns to be built in the new East Wing).

We're told that Trump prefers Corinthian columns but also that, according to a White House spokesperson, "there are no plans to change the existing Ionic columns outside the White House." It's just Cook spreading the alarm about redoing the scroll-y tops into those leafy tops.

Do you have any preference with regard to the tops of Greek columns? Do you care what it meant to the Greeks or even understand the notion of "the highest order"?

"A federal judge on Thursday declined to halt construction of the ballroom President Trump plans to build over the demolished East Wing of the White House..."

"... concluding that the lawsuit, as filed, focused on the wrong questions about the president’s authority....  Judge Richard J. Leon of the Federal District Court in Washington wrote that the group that had filed the lawsuit could amend the claim to focus more squarely on the president’s power to make sweeping changes to the building without input from Congress.... The National Trust for Historic Preservation... argued that left unchecked, Mr. Trump could redevelop the White House beyond recognition, using funds from entities seeking access or a business edge. The argument appeared to resonate with Judge Leon, an appointee of President George W. Bush.... Asked to list any other time a president had marshaled private funds to carry out a significant White House renovation without approval from Congress, Mr. Roth cited the installation of a swimming pool by President Gerald Ford and the construction of a tennis pavilion during Mr. Trump’s first term. 'The ’77 Gerald Ford swimming pool? You compare that to tearing down and building a new East Wing?' Judge Leon replied. 'C’mon, be serious.'..."

The NYT reports.

A historian weighs in The chief executive of Ish Entertainment uses the work of a historian to comment on the similarity between the U.S. today and France just before the Revolution.

An excerpt from "The Billionaires Have Gone Full Louis XV" by Michael Hirschorn in the NYT. 

The historian Robert Darnton described an uncannily similar moment in “The Revolutionary Temper: Paris 1748-1789,” his brilliant 2023 account of the decades leading up to the French Revolution. The preconditions were all there: suffocating top-down control of the media, rapid technological change, let-them-eat-cake behavior among the courtier class, weaponized religious bigotry, mansions with hideously de trop ballrooms. OK, Marjorie Taylor Greene is not quite Voltaire. But there was a pedophilia scandal involving Louis XV: Public obsession with the king’s many mistresses helped give rise to so-called libelles, cheaply printed, semi-factual pamphlets that speculated on, among other matters, the king’s supposed never-ending supply of teenage girls. It would have fit right in on TikTok. Reverence turned to mockery; mockery begot contempt; and then. …

Libelles ≈ social media. 

REVISION: The original headline was "A historian weighs in on the similarity between the U.S. today and France just before the Revolution," but the historian didn't comment on the similarity. The author of the article Michael Hirschorn, identified at the link as "the chief executive of Ish Entertainment," is the one who picked things out of the history and made the comparison. Thanks to commenter Narr for drawing attention to this.