It’s not even built yet … but Dems have declared they will TEAR DOWN $300m White House ballroom

Democrats are licking their lips at the idea of tearing down or repurposing President Donald Trump’s gilded ballroom. 

But if they think it’s going to be a vote winner with Americans, they may find they are sorely mistaken, according to Daily Mail commentators. 

NBC News interviewed several potential 2028 Democratic hopefuls, as well as other party members, who all view the ballroom as a potent political issue. 

Last month, Trump tore down the White House’s East Wing, which historically housed the offices of the First Lady, with little oversight or warning, making way for construction to begin on the ballroom so the $300 million project could be completed before the end of his term. 

If a Democrat succeeds Trump, at least one Democratic lawmaker suggested the president take the plot of land and start all over again. 

‘I don’t think it would be a bad idea to tear it down,’ Representative Steve Cohen, a Tennessee Democrat, told NBC. ‘It’s a gigantic blob there that’s Donald Trump.’

The White House on Monday afternoon pushed back on the plot to have a Democratic president tear down a newly built ballroom. 

‘President Trump is making the White House beautiful and giving it the glory it deserves at no cost to the taxpayer – something everyone should celebrate,’ spokesperson Davis Ingle told the Daily Mail. ‘Only people with a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome would find a problem with that and float tearing down much needed renovations to the People’s House.’  

Democratic Representatives Jamie Raskin (left) and Ro Khanna (right) have both spoken out against President Donald Trump’s ballroom project, with Raskin wanting to turn part of the space into a democracy exhibit 

Cohen’s colleague, Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin, who is contemplating a 2028 presidential bid if the Democrats retake the House in next year’s midterms, said he would turn the ballroom into a hybrid structure – part entertaining space, part museum.

‘No way,’ he told NBC, should the ballroom be used as Trump envisioned. 

Raskin, who was the lead manager in Trump’s second impeachment probing the president’s role in the January 6 attack, said he would dub the space the ‘Democracy Matters Ballroom.’ 

However, many were quick to condemn the Democrats’ obsession with the ballroom, which isn’t even built yet.

‘Trump is using private donations, zero tax dollars, and Democrats want to tear it down and rebuild it. This is top level Trump Derangement Syndrome and needs to stop. You can disagree and not like Trump, but this is too far now. This needs to end,’ one commenter said. 

Many others slammed the focus on the ballroom. 

‘What a bunch of petulant children,’ another added. 

‘Once again, showcasing their hate for Trump, and their disdain for anything he does, by taking the opposite side. Their hate fuels them so much so, that they cannot let themselves agree with anything he says,’ the commenter continued. 

Half of the 90,000-square-foot space would accommodate White House guests, while the other half would be reserved for a display showcasing attempts to ‘undermine and thwart popular democracy in American life,’ Raskin explained.

It would include an exhibit on how Trump tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election, leading to January 6. 

‘This is a space that’s owned by the people and that serves the people,’ Raskin said. ‘So, it should be used opposite of what Trump has in mind, which is for the American aristocracy and plutocracy to gather.’ 

Trump has argued that a ballroom has been in demand for the past 150 years. 

He first pitched building a White House ballroom in 2010, making the sell to President Barack Obama’s adviser David Axelrod, after seeing First Lady Michelle Obama host state dinners in pop-up tents.

Trump didn’t make many White House design changes during his first term in office, but started talking about the ballroom during week No. 3 of his second term, as he complained about a packed East Room. 

If Trump’s ballroom is built as planned, the historic East Room will serve as an entryway to the president’s addition. 

Democratic Representative Ro Khanna, who’s also considered a potential 2028 presidential hopeful, told NBC that he believes the future of the ballroom space should be left up to the people. 

Construction photos from Friday show the remains of the East Wing, as crews remove the rest of the debris to make way for President Donald Trump’s grand ballroom, which Democrats already want to repurpose 

A Secret Service officer stands guard in front of the North Portico as construction equipment is seen last month tearing through the East Wing, which historically housed the offices of the First Lady 

President Donald Trump allowed construction crews to rip up the East Wing and the East Colonnade, which had housed the White House’s movie theater  

‘We need a White House that is not for the tech billionaires, but for forgotten Americans,’ Khanna said. ‘In that spirit, we should ask Americans – in rural communities, urban centers and hollowed-out factory towns – for their ideas of what to do with the space.’ 

Saikat Chakrabarti, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s former chief of staff, who is now hoping to replace retiring Representative Nancy Pelosi, floated turning the ballroom into a Smithsonian-run museum.

He told NBC if he’s elected to represent Pelosi’s San Francisco district, he will introduce a bill that would turn the ballroom into a museum focused on ‘corruption and autocracy.’ 

Chakrabarti said he will ‘really put into the sunlight how this thing came to even be,’ by putting the names of companies that donated to the project on display. 

Trump has pushed that the private donations he’s sought to build the ballroom take the expense out of taxpayers’ hands, whereas Democrats have criticized it as a pay-to-play scheme.

Additionally, the White House has allowed anonymous donors to contribute to the project, despite touting transparency. 

California Governor Gavin Newsom, one of the most prominent possible 2028 White House hopefuls, said the country was watching a ‘wrecking ball presidency’ but wouldn’t go so far as to say the ballroom needed to come down. 

‘It’s a metaphor for this administration – the recklessness to which he goes about things, the fact that he doesn’t believe in rules, he doesn’t believe they apply to him,’ Newsom said on NBC’s Meet the Press, addressing the destruction of the East Wing. 

When NBC contacted Newsom’s office to see if he wanted the ballroom demolished, his office did not respond to a request for comment.