Sunrise — 6:59, 7:16, 7:19, 7:20, 7:22, 7:29.

My 7 questions about Trump's big ballroom project.

1. Before Trump, were there other Presidents who spoke of needing a big White House ballroom? Hasn't Trump stated that there were?

2. Once there is a ballroom that large, won't there be endless pressure to inflate the guest list so the crowd will look right in the space? It's not as though they'll have those movable walls that hotels used to subdivide ballrooms... or will they?!

3. What are the potential benefits of this extra-large ballroom space? How have giant ballrooms used through history played a part in diplomatic achievements or in elevating the patriotism of the people? What's the downside? 

4. Which leaders of foreign countries currently have ballrooms of the type that Trump is building? Macron? Putin? The Sultan of Brunei? Alexander Van der Bellen? Is there some sense that our leader should have equivalent facilities or are they exactly what we regard as un-American?

5. Are people misunderstanding the size of the project and picturing the footprint of the building — or even the one room — as 90,000 square feet? Do people not understand that there will be many rooms and hallways on multiple levels and that 90,000 is the total square feet of all the floor space?

6. Did Trump deliberately deprive us of detailed plans of the project in order to lure his antagonists into making assumptions about how big and weird it will be so that he could later present a completely reasonable design and make them look like stupid hotheads?

7. Once we see how the new East Wing looks, won't that create pressure to enlarge the West Wing, to achieve symmetry and isn't the West Wing in great need of an overhaul?

"You know we're building the ark," said Noah.

Trump says his ballroom might cost more than $300 million but adds, "you know we're building the arc. Maybe we use it for the arc. We raised a lot of money for the ballroom, so maybe we'll put -- the arc is going to be incredible for Washington DC, so maybe we use it for the… pic.twitter.com/D9yuyWpC7e

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 25, 2025

Nil admirari.

Nil admirari is today's Word of the Day in the Oxford English Dictionary. I ran across it because, writing the previous post, I looked up the word "sunder," after David Axelrod had accused Donald Trump of "sundering history." It's an odd word, but it's not the most apt word. Sundering has more to do with separating than demolition. And how do you do either to history?

But I was glad to get deflected into the OED, because I'm finding out about Nil admirari: "The attitude of indifference to the distractions of the outside world advocated by the Roman poet Horace. Also: a person adopting this attitude."

Etymology: "classical Latin nīl admīrārī, in nil admirari prope res est una..quae possit facere et servare beatum, ‘to wonder at nothing is just about the only way a man can become contented and remain so’ (Horace Epistles 1. 6. 1).

From the Wikipedia article about the term: "Nietzsche wrote that in this proposition the ancient philosopher 'sees the whole of philosophy,' opposing it to Schopenhauer's 'admirari id est philosophari' (to marvel is to philosophize)."

Here's the Horace:

"He’s saying, ‘I can do whatever the hell I want and you can’t stop me!' In this case, it’s sundering history."

"If you worked in the White House, you have a reverence for every wall of that place. Tattered as it may have been, there was a dignity to it. It was a quietly stately citadel of power in America, not a palace for a mad king. Trump has a manic desire to tear down history and write his own.... He believes that the only thing you can do wrong is that which is not in your self-interest."

Said David Axelrod, quoted by Maureen Dowd, in "Burnin’ Down the House" (NYT).

Sundered. 

Dowd's own words: "The president has the kind of blot-out-the-sun narcissism that spurs him to do whatever it takes to keep all eyes on him. He ignores the law, procedures, consequences. It’s a slam-dance presidency that delights in transgressing and provoking.... Trump’s talent is finding wormholes in the system that he can exploit for his own satisfaction or financial gain — things that are not specifically outlawed because it never occurred to the founders or anyone else that a lowlife could rise so high."

They left wormholes because they didn't think there would be any worms? Stop underestimating the founders! 

"Mr. Boyd had chosen the nitrogen method over lethal injection in 2018, when prisoners were given a month to choose. But..."

"... he later challenged its use, arguing earlier this year in court that the method was cruel and that the state’s protocol was inadequate.... Lee Hedgepeth, a journalist in Alabama who witnessed the execution, said he counted Mr. Boyd gasp for air more than 225 times before he was pronounced dead.... [Dissenting in the Supreme Court case], Justice Sotomayor urged people to open the stopwatch app on their phone and run it until it reached four minutes. 'Now imagine for that entire time, you are suffocating,' she wrote. 'You want to breathe; you have to breathe. But you are strapped to a gurney with a mask on your face pumping your lungs with nitrogen gas.'"

From "Lengthy Execution by Nitrogen Gas in Alabama Renews Concerns Over Method/Anthony Boyd was the eighth person executed by nitrogen gas since Alabama began using the method last year. His execution came over the strenuous objection of three liberal Supreme Court justices" (NYT)

Boyd, in his last words, insisted that he was innocent. The victim died "bound and taped to a park bench... doused... in gasoline and lit... on fire." 

"[Mike Johnson] has argued that the House... has no reason to meet as long as Senate Democrats are blocking a bill to reopen the government...."

"His strategy of indefinite hiatus means that Mr. Johnson has not engaged in the typical political theater that speakers often employ during shutdown fights to jam the party out of power: scheduling tricky votes on bills to reopen parks or pay certain categories of federal workers.... Democrats had been bracing for him to do so. But instead, he has spent much of the shutdown appearing daily at news conferences at the Capitol, hammering them for refusing to fund the government and making the case that Republicans need not negotiate. He is insistent that the House has nothing to do but wait for the stalemate to end...."

From "Keeping the House Absent, Johnson Marginalizes Congress and Himself/The speaker’s decision to hold the House in an indefinite hiatus during the shutdown is his latest move to diminish the role of the legislative branch — and his own post" (NYT).

He's right, isn't he? It's the Senate that needs to move, and the House has nothing to do but wait. If you don't have anything better than nothing to do, do nothing.

Let's take a look at that "Major Events Timeline" on the whitehouse.gov webpage.

My screengrab from the page:

Click the little arrow... there's more:

And there's one more panel:

Check the details. I'm sure "upgrading the historic 1902 structure" is wrong. I agree that the "main residence" is preserved, but there seems to be nothing left of "the historic 1902 structure," the old East Wing. Maybe the underground part? And though Obama may have met with "members of the Muslim Brotherhood" in the White House, that photograph of him was taken in Kenya, not at the White House. As for the famous photo of Hunter Biden enjoying a bath, that was not a White House bathtub. Was it?

Anyway, highlighting the lowlights of Democratic administrations — replete with semi-nudity — that's rich. "Major events" ≈ most embarrassing events.

This is a good example of Donald Trump always moving forward, always fighting back. Oppose him, and this is what you get. 

"America is being sued for attempted karma."

Sunrise — 7:29, 7:30.

Talk about whatever you want in the comments.

Rachel Maddow is at a loss for words.

 When she sees her employer on the donor list for the Trump ballroom.

"It was cool, though, I mean, pshhwww, it's terrible...."

 Said George Clooney, making some funny faces, about the Louvre heist.

"What if all of sports is ruined by this gambling thing?"

I said, revealing my level of engagement in sports, gambling, and the attendant legal issues. 

Who are the greatest figures in world history who never got to watch TV? List them along with their (anachronistic) favorite show.

Grok:

1. Socrates - "The Twilight Zone"
2. Cleopatra - "I Love Lucy"
3. Leonardo da Vinci - "Cosmos"
4. Joan of Arc - "M*A*S*H"
5. Genghis Khan - "Vikings"
6. William Shakespeare - "The West Wing"
7. Queen Elizabeth I - "The Crown"
8. Isaac Newton - "Breaking Bad"
9. Mozart - "Glee"
10. Abraham Lincoln - "The Andy Griffith Show"

ChatGPT:

1. Socrates — The Good Place
2. Cleopatra — Succession
3. Leonardo da Vinci — Black Mirror
4. Joan of Arc — Buffy the Vampire Slayer
5. Genghis Khan — Game of Thrones
6. William Shakespeare — The Simpsons
7. Marie Antoinette — RuPaul’s Drag Race
8. Ludwig van Beethoven — Mozart in the Jungle
9. Abraham Lincoln — The West Wing

"Putting up a tent does nothing but make people upset that they’ve come to a state dinner but they never get inside the White House. The only bathroom facilities..."

"... for a tent are porta-potties. Setting up a kitchen out there is hugely expensive. When the tent is up, the helicopter [Marine One] can’t land. And the grass dies."

Said Gahl Hodges Burt, quoted in "A Pile of Rubble: After 123 Years, the East Wing Is Gone/Critics are outraged over President Trump’s demolition of the East Wing to make way for his $300 million ballroom. Others say it was time for change" (NYT).

Gahl Hodges Burt, who was social secretary for three years under President Ronald Reagan, said that tearing down the East Wing to make space for the ballroom was an unfortunate necessity, and that change was overdue. Since the State Dining Room holds only 140 seated guests and the East Room has space for 200 at most, recent administrations have taken to erecting enormous tents on the South Lawn for ever larger state dinners. Ms. Burt, a board member of the White House Historical Association, added that larger spaces for East Wing offices are “very much needed.” The White House has said that office space is included in Mr. Trump’s plans for the ballroom.

Sunrise — 6:58, 7:48.

Write about whatever you want in the comments.