The History of the East Wing Ballroom

In gratitude to Mike Netter, on X, who found this rendering

The year was 1901. President McKinley had just been assassinated, six months into his second term. His vice president, Theodore Roosevelt, was getting ready to move into the White House, with his wife Edith, their six children, their dogs, cats, bears, lion, hyena, badger, and zebra. Most of these animals lived outdoors, reflecting Teddy Roosevelt’s hunter’s respect for nature, a trait he passed on to his children.

As for the White House, there were concerns that it was structurally unsound to support six rambunctious children, a vigorous young president (43), his busy wife — Edith organized weekly meetings of Cabinet wives — and all their guests.

So TR hired architect Charles Follen McKim of the famous Beaux Arts firm of McKim, Mead & White to conduct a comprehensive overhaul. His plan demolished Victorian-era greenhouses on the east side, relocated presidential offices to the new West Wing, and expanded the State Dining Room. In the process, McKim also dusted off a more ambitious East Terrace/Wing design earlier in 1901, one that included a grander neo-classical extension to balance the West Wing.

Ah the politics! Congress said the $500,000 price tag was extravagant. Roosevelt and McKim clashed with First Lady Edith Roosevelt and congressional overseers on aesthetics. Edith preferred a more restrained, family-friendly design that preserved garden views and avoided overwhelming the mansion’s classical symmetry. Critics worried a larger wing would make the White House look “too imperial.”

Sound familiar?

The Democrats’ meltdown over Donald Trump’s self-funded ballroom — borrowed from the McKim designs of 1901 — has nothing to do with cost overruns or aesthetic concerns. If it did, they would have ranted about Barack Obama’s basketball court, where he hosted pick-up games with P. Diddy, built at a reported price of $350 million.

The Trump Ballroom is going to be gorgeous, and everyone knows it.

The meltdown is strictly a political play. This ballroom interferes with the Dem narrative that everything Trump touches turns to dust. So now impeachment sleaze Eric Swalwell wants every Dem candidate for president in 2028 to pledge to demolish it. As one colleague noted on X, how much more will it cost the Dems to destroy the Ballroom than it cost Trump to build? And what an apt metaphor for their party.

The White House called the project “a bold, necessary addition that echoes the storied history of improvements and renovations from commanders-in-chief to keep the executive residence as a beacon of American excellence.” Others, like Megyn Kelly, slammed Dem critics as “lunatics.” Redundant?

Trigger your liberal friends by suggesting that after completing the new East Wing, Trump will then turn to the West Wing, to balance the building out.

Or, if you really want to troll them, send them this for Christmas.