On Friday, a federal appeals court told the President of the United States that he does not get to keep building that ballroom. Judges Patricia Millett and Bradley Garcia wrote the majority opinion in a case called National Trust for Historic Preservation v. National Park Service, and one line is worth our attention: “Each President is a temporary tenant, not the owner, of the White House and its Executive Residence,” and “Whether or not a massive ballroom should be constructed is for Congress to decide and is not a matter for Executive self-help.” Judge Neomi Rao dissented. The court stayed its own order for two weeks so the Supreme Court can decide whether to intervene.
We’ve been treating the ballroom as a punchline, but it’s not. It’s policy. Trump promised that the new addition wouldn’t touch the existing building. Then, in October, the entire 123-year-old East Wing was reduced to rubble. He lied about that, and he lied about the cost: what was promised at $200 million is now reported at $400 million, for a 90,000-square-foot ballroom bigger than the White House itself.
They keep saying no taxpayer money is being spent. Thirty-seven private donors are funding it, including Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Lockheed Martin, Palantir, Coinbase, and Comcast, and the White House won’t tell us the amounts. Public Citizen sued under FOIA and found that more than half of the publicly identified corporate donors have received federal contracts worth over $50 billion since the East Wing came down. That’s not a punchline. That’s policy, about our money, our prosecutions, and our spending.
My guest today, Ben Rhodes, has spent years documenting how democracies come apart, and he describes exactly this pattern: authoritarian leaders lean on spectacle because they cannot deliver on substance. While we gild the Oval Office doorways and pave the Rose Garden in stone, SNAP paused for the first time in the program’s history, and more than 3 million people are on track to lose food assistance. The National Park Service has lost nearly a quarter of its permanent workforce, and the deferred maintenance backlog sits around $25 billion, while $40 million goes to a garden of statues that likely won’t be finished on time. We destroy public goods to celebrate a national story we’re not invited to be in.
Two judges just told this president he’s only a tenant. So now is the time to remember that we are the landlords. Three of the 10 Steps to Freedom and Power apply here: commit to getting the facts specific, deny the frame that “no taxpayer dollars” means “no cost,” and engage by using the public comment process and calling our members of Congress, because the D.C. Circuit just handed them their own authority back on a platter.
The Supreme Court may take up this case in the coming weeks. Regardless of what they say, in November we have a chance to say something, and we need to begin eviction proceedings right now.
Joining our conversation is Ben Rhodes, writer, political commentator, and former Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting under President Barack Obama. His most recent book is All We Say: A History of the United States in 15 Speeches, and he’s also the co-host of Crooked Media’s Pod Save the World and author of the Substack Notes on the Stories We Tell.
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