A wise man — possibly Winston Churchill — once said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” And if he’d lived long enough to see President Donald Trump in office, he might have added, “Especially if you can turn it into a real estate project.”
In the aftermath of the chaos at the White House Correspondents’ dinner, Trump was presented with yet another opportunity to refocus his presidency on issues important to the American people. Instead, he chose to exploit the opportunity for his personal priorities.
The real crisis, in his telling, was less about guns or mental health and more about America’s strategic shortage of sufficiently opulent indoor gathering spaces.
That, and the continued existence of pesky anti-Trump elites who had the audacity to try to hold him accountable.
Let’s start with the former: Trump’s attempt to link the attack with the need for a new $400 million White House ballroom.
“This event would never have happened with the militarily top secret ballroom currently under construction at the White House,” Trump averred on Truth Social.
Of course, the logic of tying a failed assassination attempt to the urgent need for a huge new ballroom is “interpretive” at best. Keep in mind, the would-be assassin didn’t even make it to the same hotel floor as Trump, much less pose a danger to the president.
What is more, are we to believe Trump will soon perpetually hold court at the “Versailles on the Potomac,” never leaving 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. to hold a rally or deliver a speech anywhere else?
Regardless, this pro-ballroom influence campaign — which extended to Republican politicians and right-wing “influencers” — was presumably needed to fend off a pesky lawsuit based on the (legally correct) proposition that Trump should have sought congressional approval before bulldozing the East Wing to build a gaudy monstrosity.
But this vanity project was merely the opening act. As much as Trump loves redecorating, he loves something else even more: revenge.
Source: Korea Times News
