So it turns out that even packing the National Capital Planning Commission with cronies wasn’t enough to get President Donald Trump’s big, dumb ballroom approved.
The NCPC was planning to vote on the monstrosity on Thursday, and it seemed like a foregone conclusion that it would sail through just as it did for the Commission of Fine Arts—which Trump also stuffed with sycophants.
The East Wing is demolished to make room for President Donald Trump’s ballroom on Oct. 23, 2025.
But the NCPC apparently didn’t count on the fact that normal people really, really hate this thing. In fact, the commission received more than 35,000 comments about the hideous ballroom, with 97% of them opposing it.
Would you like some examples?
How about one that called the ballroom a "gaudy, personalized palace” and "a complete razing of American history.” Or perhaps the one that said it’s “absolutely shameful" and "hideous.” And one comment that called it a “soulless hotel conference space” was so good that CNN made it a headline.
This absolute public thrashing stands in stark contrast to the NCPC’s executive director’s recommendation, which echoes all of the Trump talking points about how the East Wing has evolved over time, so tearing it down and putting up a monstrous ballroom is just terrific.
The recommendation does include some vague sketches and aerial views of the ever-evolving ballroom. The worst part is probably the fact that Trump’s bribe palace is now going to be so enormous that it will wrap around the East Garden, destroying its symmetry.
A National Capital Planning Commission rendering of President Donald Trump’s atrocious ballroom.
The NCPC didn’t vote the ballroom down, of course. It understood the assignment, which was to approve this unthinkingly. But the deluge of comments would have made for a very bad look, so NCPC Chair Will Scharf moved the vote to next month to “take some time to deliberate.”
What Scharf really means is that he wants a cooling-down period where he hopes that people will stop paying so much attention before he forces a vote to approve it—because that’s all he’s there for.
There’s not even any pretense that Scharf is independent of Trump, since he’s currently the White House staff secretary and—you guessed it—was one of Trump’s personal attorneys. Trump seems to have an infinite supply of former criminal and civil lawyers who now all seem to have jobs they’re in no way qualified for.
If you’re wondering how the White House is handling this setback, here’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt being very cool and normal and professional in a statement to The New York Times:
These nasty comments are clearly stemming from an organized campaign of Trump-deranged liberals who clearly have no style or taste. It’s a shame that some people in this country are so debilitated with Trump derangement syndrome, they can’t even recognize or respect beauty when they see it. President Trump’s ballroom will be extraordinary, at no expense to taxpayers, for generations to come.
Whew.
Things also aren’t going so great with Trump’s plan to turn the Kennedy Center the World’s Tackiest Fascist Performing Arts Center either. Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio filed a lawsuit Friday to try to block the center’s closure and possible demolition.
New signage for the The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For The Performing Arts is unveiled on Dec. 19, 2025.
Beatty is a board member of the Kennedy Center, but the White House refuses to invite her to any of the planning meetings. She was also muted during a board meeting so she couldn’t object to tacking Trump’s name onto the Kennedy Center, allowing Trump to claim that the board’s vote was unanimous.
Also on Friday, the National Symphony Orchestra’s executive director stepped down, leaving one of the Kennedy Center’s last remaining acts without leadership. That follows several other performers fleeing in droves.
No one wants what Trump is selling, save for his sycophants. The people don’t want the ballroom, and they don’t want the Kennedy Center to be gutted.
But all we can do is keep trying to gum up the works.
