If one knows anything about being king, then one knows just how hard it is to placate their ravenous cravenings and demanding needs. After all, a king will require a steady diet of praise and adoration, as something is certainly going to be needed to fight off that creeping sense of self-doubt that will inevitably arise when the horrible and dishonest scribes criticize him en masse. And, of course, he will likewise need control over the arts, as not only should his refined aesthetic tastes be allowed to reign supreme, but any pesky “visionaries” should also obviously not be allowed to engender any sort of civil unrest or discontent with their abominable creations. Yet, perhaps most of all, he needs a lavish monument to himself — one made from the purest gold and finest marble — so that his greatness may forever be etched in the annals of history.
Notably, it now seems that President Donald Trump may be very close to satisfying this last, all-important kingly need of his, as construction for his lavish, $300 million dollar White House ballroom has now begun. This is not necessarily news to anyone, however, as images of the project’s progress have gone viral and become ubiquitous. After all, it is flat out shocking to the American conscience to see the iconic East Wing of the White House reduced to rubble and dust. Yet, The Fordham Ram nevertheless feels that it must offer up its own opinions on this already very public matter, as while the legality of Trump’s ballroom may not be a matter open to debate, the optics and underlying political realities of such a massive vanity project can neither be ignored nor passively accepted.
Take, for instance, the indisputable fact that attempting to build “90,000 total square feet of ornately designed” ballroom space is simply just not a good look when the nation is effectively on the brink of major socioeconomic collapse with the government shutdown. In other words, as 41.7 million Americans are staring down the barrel of hunger due to their SNAP benefits lapsing, as millions of federal employees are looking at going another week without a paycheck and as every American is being denied access to some of the vital services that are invaluable to their quality of life, the Trump administration is actively promoting the idea that building a gigantic, neoclassical event space full of gilt ornamentation and marble grandeur is a “much-needed” project at this point in time. This feels, to be blunt, like a massive middle finger to a suffering American populace.
Even if one were to make the logically dubious claim that the Trump administration bears no responsibility for what is currently happening and is not relishing this shutdown, there is still no way to justifiably argue for the construction of this totem of extravagant wealth at this point in history. You simply cannot flaunt your riches and spoils in the face of a starving, desperate person — it is unbecoming of any leader who purports to seriously care about their people.
Consider also how this ballroom presents major concerns about the establishment of a pay-to-play scheme. To elaborate on this sentiment, while the ballroom is (thankfully) not being funded by taxpayer money, it is also simultaneously not being bankrolled purely by Trump’s own personal fortune. Instead, this vanity project has been privately funded through voluntary donations, with the vast majority of its capital coming from a patron list that includes 37 different companies and individual actors (e.g., defense contractor Lockheed Martin has offered up $10 million dollars in support of the project, while tech mogul Google has given just about $5 million dollars towards the construction efforts).
Obviously, these gifts pose major ethical concerns in a vacuum, as they ultimately represent a way in which corporations could effectively force a government to be beholden to their desires and wishes (i.e., by making them logistically dependent upon their financial support). However, these donations become all the more concerning when one considers the Trump administration’s profound tendency to hand out legal and judicial benefits to its biggest financial backers. Thus, it is hard to envision a world in which these companies are footing the bill for reasons beyond their hope, or perhaps even expectation, that such “generosity” will eventually lead to more beneficial legislation and more substantial contracts being thrown their way. In fact, this concern has been articulated rather strongly by some of the leading political ethicists of our time, with figures like Richard W. Painter, a professor at Minnesota Law and former chief ethics lawyer for former President George W. Bush, arguing that this seems to be nothing more than a pay-to-play scheme waiting to happen. In his own words, “‘[The] [b]ottom line is [the companies making donations for the ballroom construction] want something from the government and they are paying 1) for access to the President and other high ranking officials, and 2) Hoping it will buy them what they want.’”
Thus, put all of this together (i.e., the optics and ethical concerns), and this ballroom now seems like a colossal sociopolitical timebomb just waiting to go off. It is simply everything that is wrong in contemporary modern American politics, representing the ruling elite’s fundamental disconnect from the lived realities of the vast majority of Americans, as well as the ease with which corporate interests can work their way into systems that are supposed to work for the people. In light of this, The Fordham Ram feels the need to speak out and condemn the construction of this monstrosity.