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Trump’s Latest Ballroom Push Is His Nero Moment

The president’s decision to commandeer the DOJ to argue that his ballroom is a security necessity is the ultimate sign that this country is in decline.

Donald Trump looks out at the White House Ballroom construction site.

Donald Trump’s White House ballroom is the thing that proves America is in its decline. It’s Nero’s fiddle. It’s Marie Antionette’s cake. In an era of environmental catastrophe, on the precipice of the robot revolution, in a time of war, during a period of economic hardship, and in the immediate aftermath of an assassination attempt, this gilded play space has become the focus not only of the sitting president but also of the Department of Justice, the American press corps, and several courts.

The full-on-bonkers nature of the obsession became truly apparent earlier this week when Trump decided to use the failed attempt on his life to gin up public support for his ballroom—which is a wild thing to write, much less live through. “This event would never have happened with the Militarily Top Secret Ballroom currently under construction at the White House. It cannot be built fast enough!” Trump posted on Truth Social, echoing comments he made on Fox News shortly after the assassination attempt.

The idea that Trump needs a top secret (that everybody knows about) ballroom for presidential security is like saying JFK needed a faster convertible. It’s preposterous. The latest assassination attempt happened at an event where Trump was an invited guest, not the host; the dinner wouldn’t have taken place in the ballroom even if it existed. And the same goes for the previous assassination attempt, which happened on one of Trump’s golf courses, and the one before that, which took place at one of his own campaign rallies. Neither of those events would have taken place in a ballroom. Having a secure place for Trump to host visiting sycophants would not have protected him from these threats.

That basic reality has not stopped Trump, his lackeys, and whatever the hell John Fetterman is these days from using every media orifice available to them to make the case for the ballroom. Nor has their effort to bring back the gilded age, one failed assassination attempt at a time, been limited to television and social media. Preposterously, the administration is trying to get the courts to greenlight Trump’s Sun King renovations on the ridiculous theory that gold-plated chandeliers stop bullets. They’ve immortalized their nonsensical argument in a court motion.

That motion marks a new low in the history of the Department of Justice, in the history of Trump’s Department of Justice, which is saying something. But I really do believe we’ve reached a nadir—at least until the next horror I lack the creativity to imagine.

To fully appreciate it, you have to understand the state of play with the legal challenges to the ballroom.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a privately........

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