Trump‘s White House Expansion and Hints of a Future Beyond the Presidency

That Donald Trump would end up shouting from the rooftops of Washington is not, in and of itself, all that surprising; that he did so in actuality and not just metaphorically was a bit of a shock.”sir, why are you on the roof?” one journalist asked, when the President suddenly appeared on the flat-top exterior of the White House this week. “Taking a little walk,” the President replied. The unusual photo op captured Trump, accompanied by his architect, surveying from on high how his planned two-hundred-million-dollar, ninety-thousand-square-foot ballroom, to be built in place of the current East wing, will transform the executive campus. He might also have wanted a bird’s-eye view of the newly trumpified Rose Garden,the iconic green space designed by Bunny Mellon,wich was recently paved over in “very white” stone on Trump’s orders. The President has not yet demanded that his name be emblazoned on the latest additions to the White House complex, but would anyone be stunned if he does? Truman has a balcony; Trump’s ballroom will be bigger, gaudier, and, it’s safe to predict, a lot more gilded.

The controversy about the project’s gargantuan size, obscene price tag, and questionable aesthetics was inevitable-he’s cutting cancer research but building himself a tacky ballroom? If Democrats can’t capitalize on this politically, they should ask Trump’s advice on filing for bankruptcy. But what stood out to me in the White House’s official announcement about the construction project was its relatively short time frame. “It is expected to be completed long before the end of President Trump’s term,” the statement said. Maybe it was wrong, but I took this as good news-a sign, perhaps, that he’s really planning on leaving? “It will be a great legacy project,” Trump promised, which sounded encouragingly like someone thinking about life after office. An choice theory, however, is just as plausible: that the President, ever the real-estate pitchman, had insisted on publicly announcing an unrealistic deadline for the construction.

A few days after revealing the project, which would be the largest addition to the compound since Teddy Roosevelt built the West Wing, in the early twentieth century, Trump gave an interview to CNBC, in which he was asked about leaving office at the end of his second term, in 2029. in the past,he’s often dangled the possibility that he would try to run for a third term,defying both his own advanced age and the Constitution’s very clearly written Twenty-second Amendment,which limits Presidents to two terms. Loads of “Trump 2028” merchandise on his website attest to the fact that at least his fund-raising team still thinks there is a chance of this happening. But on Tuesday, the President said that he would “probably not” attempt to run again. Later that day, when asked about possible successors, he came closer than he has before to anointing J. D. Vance as his theoretical heir apparent, calling the Vice-President the “most likely” nominee and “probably favorite” in 2028. Another sign,