On the East Wing

JAMELLE BOUIE

When asked whether President Trump had any other significant plans for altering the White House, apropos the recent demolition of the structure’s East Wing, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, explained that “at this moment in time, of course, the ballroom is really the president’s main priority.”

The context makes clear that this isn’t an absolute statement about the president’s overall priorities. At the same time, it might as well have been, since there is no evidence that Trump cares about anything else happening in Washington.

To wit, the government is shut down, countless federal employees are working without pay, millions of Americans are poised to lose SNAP benefits, and the economy is buckling under the weight of the president’s tariffs and trade policies. But Trump, of course, is most concerned with his $300 million ballroom, paid for with contributions from private interests and wealthy supporters, many of whom have, or could have, a stake in the business of government.

If this sounds like rank corruption, that’s because it is. Trump, in fact, does not seem to have any interest or priority other than enriching himself, either by corrupt schemes run through his children, through “contributions” and “gifts” from his billionaire backers, or by demanding hundreds of millions of dollars in recompense from the Department of Justice, drawn from the nation’s treasury.

A Congress with the self-respect to want to defend its constitutional prerogatives might choose to do something about this. The Congress we have has all but dissolved itself.

As for the demolition itself — a premeditated act that Trump lied about in a typical display of his pathological dishonesty — is there a better illustration of what it means, and what it has meant, to Make America Great Again?

NEW YORK TIMES