Speaker 1: What's going on. Thank you so much for listening to
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smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for
your support. So the East Wing demolition and the new
White House ballroom, this is the this is the national
local story we all need right now as a as
a country. Really, I think so it and I call
it a national local story because we have lived this
local story repeatedly. It is replicated in jurists all across
the fruited plane. As a former reporter here at WBT
LO those many years ago, I would cover the Charlotte
City Council meetings, and the Charlotte City Council does rezonings
and development approvals and such. When I did my time
up in Asheville, working up there for about eight years,
I would also monitor the Asheville City Council meetings and
they too would do rezonings and development deals. And now
upon my return to the City of Asheville or sorry,
the City of Charlotte, I continue to monitor the Charlotte
City Council meetings and they still are doing rezonings and developments.
And what we are watching with the White House ballroom
project is very, very familiar to me because I have
witnessed this same argument since two thousand, so for twenty
five years, I have seen this argument unfold in every
city that I have ever covered rezonings and developments. Because
you know, if you take out you know, Orange Hitler,
you remove Donald Trump from the equation, it's the same arguments.
Except for the traffic count argument. I've not heard anybody
make the it's going to increase our traffic. I haven't
heard that one. But all of the rest of it
is is the same. Particularly if you've ever, you know,
had the had the blessings of watching a fight over
any kind of improvement in a historical district, those things,
those things are nasty and kind of ridiculous. Like I
remember one here in Charlotte. It was over the coffee cup.
That was the name of a place, it's called the
Coffee Cup, And it was right down the block here
from the radio station. I had gone into the Coffee
Cup over the years several times to get one of
their ridiculously awesome and large morning biscuits. And they somebody,
a developer came in bought all of the land and
they were like, we're gonna make a whole bunch of
you know, mixed use development in there, because at the
time that was the big thing, mixed use development, retail
on the ground floor, apartments and up above. And the
all of a sudden, people that I you know, had
never seen at city council meetings and never saw again,
they turned out in order to argue against the Coffee
Cup moving, which they did. By the way, spoiler alert,
it was approved. The Coffee Cup did move. The Coffee
Cup was one of the few places back in I
think the sixties I'm just going from memory here that
served that integrated. They served black and white customers. And
for this they were trying to get it designated as
a historic site and all of that. But like, we
don't do that in Charlotte. We tear down the historic
buildings and we put you know, like a sign up
or maybe like a like old I don't know, one
of those bronze placards or whatever, and we sink it
into the concrete or like on this spot, something happened
a long time ago, right, And then you know, if
you walk past it and you stop to read it,
you will then, you know, be culturally historically enriched. But
otherwise you could walk around, like all through uptown and
never really encounter any kind of historic building. And that's
just the Charlotte way. And I remember I was out
at a bar one night and talking to a lady
who was passionate about the coffee cup and did not know, like,
you know, who I was or what I did. I mean,
I was a reporter. Nobody knew who I was. So
I'm out at this bar and she's like going off
on this, you know, huge tirade about the coffee cup.
And I asked her at some point, like have you
have you ever been inside the coffee cup? Have you
been there? Not to sound all Douglas Murray esque, but
have you been there? And she had not, and I
was like, as far as historic buildings go, it's like,
it's not really a great building. It's not like there's
some architecture that speaks to you. It's kind of a shack.
You know, it wasn't not really a great building. And
so if the coffee cup owners the original owner, oh
that's right, I think they had sold, so it wasn't
even the original owners at that point, and so anyway,
they moved them. And then I think that the whole
project because the downturn in the economy hit and they
never actually built the entire project, so they just cleared
the building and nothing is there as I understand it
to this day. So I have covered a lot of
this stuff, and that's what I see. This East Wing
project at the White House, that's what I see in
this argument when I'm reading people's outrage. I mean, like, okay,
ninety nine percent of it is Orange Hitler, you know,
can't stand Donald Trump. Anything he does is awful, and
so we're against it, and they're just trying to find
all of these these things to support their pre existing anger. Right.
You have sort of this nimby attitude, a sort of
not in my backyard. There's this anti development, anti progress,
I call it that. And so you've got that side
of it, and then on the other side, you've got
a I don't want to say progressive, but a more
pro progress kind of a mentality, but an improvement mentality,
a builder mentality, and that is often these these are
the things that are often at odds in these types
of these types of development. And this is I think
a very important moment for us to as a nation
to accept the idea that building new and beautiful things
that are needed is good. It's a good thing. Like
you've probably heard people lament like we used to build
stuff in America, right, And I know it's just a ballroom,
and I know it's Donald Trump, and so you gotta
hate the project because you hate the developer. I understand that.
But if you step back for a moment, what was
the need that precipitated the project. It's that the White
House doesn't have a ballroom to hold events in to
the point where they have to set up these tents
out on the lawn. Whenever they have like members of
foreign countries coming to visit the White House for a
state dinner, they're doing some you know, big party or
something for important people, and they got to pitch a tent.
And they've been doing that for decades now. I understand
there are some people in big tent in the tent industry,
that are probably not too keen on this project either,
because it will render their services obsolete theyrrelevant. They are
irrelevant at this point then, right, don't need your tense anymore.
But setting that industry aside, what is the rational argument
against having a secure building for these types of events?
And I can find none, And so that's why you
get all of these stand in arguments that are used
to try to make the case that why you're opposed
to it isn't really why you're opposed to it. You know,
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so let me start with the the MSNBC write up
on the East Wing demolition. Okay, this is by a
guy named Hayes Brown, a writer and editor for MSNBC Daily.
He used to work at BuzzFeed. So yeah, he says
that it's absurd. He says it's potential unethical. Okay. Former
officials and historical experts were appalled at Donald Trump and
hence at the images. Actually, I just threw that part
in there about Donald Trump. That's really what drives a
lot of this. They hate Trump and so therefore what
he's doing is wrong. So they're appalled at the images
of demolition equipment ripping through the White House's East wing
when they were first published by The Washington Post this week.
The outcry only grew as the rapid renovation spread further,
not merely taking down the facade outside the East Wing,
but tearing haphazardly into the building. Yeah, it's called a demo.
Have you ever seen a demolition of a building? Once
everything that they want to save is out of the building,
it's really just a process of ripping the whole thing down.
Like I'm not sure, Like, did you expect people out
there with screwdrivers, you know, undoing every screw you know,
using a crowbar and peeling off every piece of wood
to to preserve the wood. It's just absurd, It's absurd,
he says. A White House official confirmed that the plan
is now to raise the whole structure, rather than tagging
on the ballroom as an addition. Now, by the way,
this is apparently a lie that media made off of
a mistake. So media reporters at a White House briefing
from months ago, they messed up. They thought that a
question from a reporter was spoken by the White House
Press Secretary, Caroline Levette or Levitt, and she did not
say that a reporter asked it, And so the AP
then put out their story back in July, saying that
it would that the East Wing would not be demolished,
but she didn't say that. The AP has since corrected
the record as of two days ago. But there's this
belief that Trump is now doing something that he didn't
say he was going to do. They did, They showed
you the plans. He's been walking around with those plans
for months and it includes the removal of the East
Wing offices that everybody's now freaking out because we can
see the demolition occurring now. He says, it's true that
there have been several major overhauls to the Executive Mansion.
That's the main part of the White House, right, So
the Executive Mansion is in the center, that's what everybody
thinks of when they think of the White House. And
then you've got these two sort of annex buildings off
to the sides. One's the West Wing, one's the East Wing,
and then they're connected with the Colonnade a little sort
of open air breezeway that goes between so you can
walk between the buildings when it's raining. But the project
Trump has undertaken is on another level, entirely because he
is the worst ever. I added that last part. The
East Wing and the West Wing are not original they
were added later. Both of them originated during President Teddy
Roosevelt's administration. The West Wing was originally a temporary structure
to house the growing presidential staff and keep him away
from the residences. The construction required destroying the Victorian era
conservatory greenhouses that previously occupied the grounds, and at the time,
the pearl clutching was off the charts from The Washington
Times nineteen o two. Unfortunately, the West Terrace ends in
an awful blot on the landscape the new temporary offices
for the president. It is to be hoped the temporary
does not mean a temporizing with the American people to
tied over their first wrath and then perpetuate the hideous
little dog house as a permanent thing. Yeah. See this
is new, right, this is never new. It's like, oh,
this thing exists, so I don't We don't need it anymore.
It's obsolete, it's falling apart. Whatever, We're going to tear
it down. No, you can't tear it down. Oh I
hate the way the new thing looks. They were saying
that about the West Wing. The East Wing began life
as an entryway for Teddy Roosevelt's guests, to make their
way through a corridor to the residents with a long
cloak room for coats and hats. Not really needed so
much any longer, right, I mean, yes, some coats, but
with you know, climate control in vehicles and in the building,
you don't really need that much room for coats anymore,
and definitely not hats, except of course, if you're hosting
like a Kentucky Derby party. But his great nephew FDR
would later augment the structure starting in nineteen forty two,
adding a second story and more office space. The expansion
was done mostly to cover up the secret construction of
a bunker underneath the White House in case Germany's long
range missile program was ever able to reach Washington. Since then,
it has or had become the public facing arm of
the White House, with the first floor devoted to tours
and the second floor populated with the office of the
First Lady and her staff. By the way, when Truman
was president, he and his wife had to move out
of the White House for like three years the actual
mansion itself because it was collapsing. They gutted the entire interior. Okay,
the only thing that remained was the exterior stonework. That's it.
Everything inside got gutted during Truman's presidency. And when he
got back in after being out for three years, he
comes back in and he's like five and a half
million dollars, which in today's dollars like seventy million. He's like,
I could have done it for half that price, which
is again, that's like every single argument against any kind
of development like this, Oh I, they have to spend
so much money, Like this is every hoa Facebook page.
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Scott Adams the creator of the Dilbert cartoon series. He
does he also does a podcast, and he talked a
little bit about this. I think this was from yesterday's show. Yeah,
he talked a little bit about this yesterday on his
podcast about the demolition of the East Wing. And here's
what you know. Here, here's what he had to say.
Speaker 2: Is there even one person in the United States who's
being impacted by the ballroom. Anybody, are you guys okay?
There's a ballroom being built. Everybody okay. And in order
to build the ballroom, they're going to do that, they
have to knock down the building that was there. Are
you all okay? Did anybody get knocked down when they
knocked down the building? You're all okay? I was told
this to be an emergency. It would be a problem.
All right, I'm glad you're okay.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Like, I don't understand why people are freaking out
about this so much, except that it's Donald Trump and
Trump arrangement syndrome. The White House said that it's going
to submit the ballroom plans to the National Capitol Planning
Commission for review, but the announcement was made only after
the demo had already begun. Classic developer move, right, you
tear it all down, and it's like, well, I mean,
I guess we could walk away, which I guess is
what a couple out of Virginia are asking a court
to do. They have gone to court to try to
block Trump from proceeding with demolition of the East Wring. Guys,
I think you were a little late to the courthouse.
Charles and Judith Voorhees filed the motion in federal court
late yesterday, asking a judge to halt any further damage
to the White House. There's nothing left. It's all torn down.
I mean, not the whole White House, just that building
on the east side, the East Wing offices. It seeks
a temporary restraining order against the demolition, arguing it is
taking place without legally required approvals or reviews. Yeah. The
problem is that one of the laws that they're going
to be citing here, the National Historic Preservation Act, it
actually contains an explicit exemption for the White House. So yeah,
I mean, good try, I guess on you guys with
the lawsuit. Back to the MSNBC writer, while not as
psychologically damaging as the slide into authoritarianism that Trump has unleashed,
the gaudy, gilded monstrosity that may eventually be attached to
the People's House will serve as a reminder of how
much his influence will be felt long after he is gone.
And that's the problem. That's the problem. They all know
that ballroom once it's built with private donations. By the way,
it's not even costing taxpayers any money. That thing is
not going to go anywhere. That ballroom will now be
a part of the White House until there is no
longer a White House, right, and that's what's got them upset.
Trump has left a mark on the White House, and
that's what has them so ticked off. Miranda Divine at
the New York Post saying trump arrangement critics of his big,
beautiful ballroom are losing their minds over his beautification of
the White House. Suddenly the people who cheered on as
bandal revolutionaries, toppled statues of Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln,
or tore down Confederate monuments, now they are the ardent
preservers of American history. Hillary Clinton tweeted, it's not his house.
Of course, her best known contribution to the White House
was making off with about twenty eight thousand dollars worth
of furniture when she and Bill moved out, builded other
things at the People's House that we'll just leave that there.
The ballroom is a historic and well overdue enhancement of
the White House, and it's not costing taxpayers any money
well to build, Like once it's built, then you're going
to have, you know, the ongoing maintenance cost and all
that there will also be a reinforced attack proof steel roof,
and all sorts of other national security enhancements that have
long been on the wish list of the US military,
which Trump hinted during a meeting with Theocretary General of
NATO in the Oval Office, saying that the military is
very much involved in the planning here. As a seasoned
property developer, Trump knows you never give naysayers time to complain.
That's why they moved so fast, right. Trump's beautification and
improvement projects at the White House really are a metaphor
for what he is attempting for the country as a whole.
She says. For instance, he takes personal pride in the
restoration of Washington, d C. Since he announced his crime crackdown.
He equates civic beauty with law and order, something his
critics cannot understand. If you want to understand Trump's mindset,
the big vision statesman and detail freak perfectionist, you have
to read the book Under Siege, written by Trump's son Eric,
a chip off the old block in every way except
for the love of the limelight, and what comes through
in that book, she says, is his father's passion for
building and creating. He talks about how his dad put
him to work on the construction projects and like manual labor,
walking around with you know, wheelbarrows full of materials and
stuff taught him the value of a dollar. Trump also
taught his son to love and appreciate craftsmanship and the
people who are capable of creating something beautiful with their hands.
He tells a story. I saw an interview with Eric
Trump about this, and he tells a story of they
were driving down the road one day. This was decades ago.
Eric Trump is a little kid and he sees some
guy on the side of the road and he's doing
some stone work. So Trump tells the driver stop the car.
The limo, probably stop the limo. Trump gets out with
Eric and he starts talking to this stonemason and the
guy is from Italy and he's admiring the work and
they're talking about the stone work and all of that,
and Trump ends up hiring that guy to do all
the stone work for all of his buildings after that.
Trump is a builder. He built skylines, resorts and businesses,
and he built a family. According to Eric Trump, and
now the president is putting that passion for building beautiful
things into restoring America. Right. Destruction is easy, as you
saw with the East Wing office building. Right, it's easy.
You could tear stuff down pretty quickly. But creation, particularly
creating things of beauty that, in my opinion, is an
expression of the divine through man. Right, building beautiful buildings,
whether they were churches hundreds of years ago, right, or
or government buildings that still stand today in the classic architecture,
which is by the way, going to be They hired
I don't know the architect's name, but they hired somebody
who has done a bunch of churches and so like
they're going to keep that same architectural esthetic. It's going
to look like a beautiful part of the building. And
part of me wonders if that's what's got people upset
to because building beautiful things is a manifestation of the divine,
and I just kind of wonder if people don't like
to be reminded of that. All Right, if you're listening
to this show, you know I try to keep up
with all sorts of current events, and I know you
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Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it
also supports ground News as they make the media landscape
more transparent. Here's the peak tweet from Holly, who says,
I can't imagine the shape the East Wing actually was
in after all the piecemeal repairs and renovations over the years. Yeah,
I mean. Press Secretary Caroline Levitt pointed out two reporters
think yesterday, Like you're sitting in the press briefing room
which used to be the swimming pool. This was a pool.
Presidents have done this stuff to the White House since
there was a White House, right, Okay, since the British
burned it down. But yeah, after that, okay, Alan, welcome
to the program.
Speaker 3: Hello, Alan, Hey Pete, how you doing?
Speaker 1: Man?
Speaker 3: I really appreciate this. Come appreciate this conversation you're having here.
I'm a I'm a I've got a fab shop and
I make decorative things out of copper and brass and
stainless and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Nice.
Speaker 3: And if it's worth part of my life to build
a pro in every pod project, every single project has
part of my life in it.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 3: So if if it's going to be in an item
that somebody has assigned serious value to, it has to
be adorned. It's not optional. And the way I look
at things, and regrettably, I think so many people in
our society today have bought into these isms like there
is no value to this ornamental construction.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So one example I would give you is the
difference between say, the US Capitol Building versus the North
Carolina General Assembly Building, and if you've never seen the
General Assembly buildings. It's just like they're two boxes, they're
just squares. They were built in like the sixties and seventies,
and just like a lot of the architecture, particularly government
architecture at the time, it was just stripped of all
of its soul, the architecture, and then they throw some
pieces of quote artwork out on the front lawn which
also don't have any intrinsic beauty in them, and it
doesn't speak to anything in the soul. And that's what
that's what beautiful works of architecture. H And as you
call it adornment, which is a great term, it's like
that's that's what you're supposed to be conjuring up. Like
you said, it's like your time is a unit of
your life that you are trading off to create this thing.
You don't get any more time, and so that is
a it's a limited resource that you are trading to
create something. Why not make it beautiful?
Speaker 3: That's and that's you know, I don't know, but with
the number of people that you deal with, the most
powerful word that I've learned to use is know, And
I should have learned it years ago.
Speaker 1: Well, all right, Allan. I appreciate the call man. Have
a great weekend, you do, all right? Take care now. Yeah,
I think there are a lot of people that are
worried that this is going to look like Trump Tower, right,
I did see Yea. Walter sent me the photo like
this AI generated image of Trump Tower on the East Lawn.
That's not what it's going to be, but that's I
think what a lot of these lefties think it's going
to look like, which is just silly. It's just silly.
All right. That'll do it for this episode. Thank you
so much for listening. I could not do the show
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for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.