Former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has said a lot of head-scratching things on her book tour (catch up on them here), but her comments about the construction underway at the White House were particularly laughable.
KJP believes the demolition that is making way for the new, privately funded White House ballroom is illustrative of corruption within the Trump administration as a whole. And she is not the only leftist freaking out about the upgrade.
On Tuesday’s show, Megyn was joined by Stu Burguiere, host of BlazeTV’s Stu Does America, to discuss the meltdown and what the ballroom project actually signifies.
The Ballroom Build
President Trump has been floating the idea of adding a ballroom to the White House for months, and he announced in a Truth Social post on Monday that construction is now underway.
“For more than 150 years, every president has dreamt about having a Ballroom at the White House to accommodate people for grand parties, State Visits, etc. I am honored to be the first President to finally get this much-needed project underway — with zero cost to the American Taxpayer,” he wrote. “The White House Ballroom is being privately funded by many generous Patriots, Great American Companies, and, yours truly. This Ballroom will be happily used for Generations to come!”
He said the project will also include a “fully modernized” East Wing that will “be more beautiful than ever when it is complete.” According to the White House, the 90,000-square-foot ballroom will be able to accommodate approximately 650 seated guests. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told the media in July that the project will cost an estimated $200 million and will be funded entirely by private donors.
Karine’s Complaints
That apparently doesn’t sit well with Leavitt’s predecessor, who bemoaned the construction during an appearance on The View Tuesday morning. “So, The People’s House is basically being sold to the highest bidder,” Jean-Pierre claimed. “It is corruption at its core.”
She also tried to draw a parallel between the project and what she considers to be wrong with the Trump administration. “There’s no greater metaphor right now than what’s happening right now in this country than watching Donald Trump take a wrecking ball to the White House,” she said.
Megyn failed to follow the logic. “I don’t know the White House that well, but aren’t you kind of shocked there is not already a ballroom… It would be great to have a very large room so you can have more people… That is something every president can use and that actually will, I think, be a boon to the people,” she said. “But Karine Jean-Pierre is unhappy about it not costing the taxpayers one dime. He got a bunch of private funding for it, which I think most taxpayers would say ‘cool’ in response to. She thinks it’s corrupt.”
Additional Criticism
And KJP is not alone in her criticism. Former First Lady Hillary Clinton, New Jersey Sen. Andy Kim, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and plenty of other Dems have taken to social media this week to question Trump’s priorities and accuse him of “destroying” the White House.
What they fail to mention, Megyn noted, is that he is far from the first president to make changes to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. “I read this on X earlier today: Teddy Roosevelt built the West Wing, [William Howard] Taft made the executive office oval, FDR added the entire East Wing and included an indoor pool for himself, [Harry] Truman gutted the entire White House, [Richard] Nixon added a bowling alley, [Barack] Obama added a basketball court, and Trump is adding a ballroom,” she recounted. “Why are we having such a meltdown? Where was the meltdown over the basketball court?”
As Megyn explained, “each president adds something” to the building and this is actually a pretty natural fit for President Trump, who also added a paved patio to the Rose Garden earlier this year. “No one is destroying the East Wing for it never to be rebuilt,” she noted. “He is in construction. He saw a need. He found a way to fund it. And now every president who ever lives there will have an additional space in which to hold events.”
The Bigger Picture
While Jean-Pierre may think that signals corruption, Burguiere said it signifies something else about the Trump administration. “In some ways, it actually kind of is a good microcosm of what Trump is doing right now,” he said. “He is actually making this bigger and better.”
And while he agreed there is a need for a larger event space at the White House, he believes there is a larger significance. “What [Trump] really likes about this type of stuff is he likes to project power,” he explained. “It will be very useful for presidents in the future, and it will [also]… communicate something to the rest of the world: We’re not in decline… This is the golden age.”
“This is what he wants people to believe about America – not just Americans, but the people that come over here that he has to deal in diplomacy and negotiations with,” Burguiere added. “It is all part of, I do believe, an actual strategy here.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Burguiere by tuning in to episode 1,176 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.