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Why Tearing Down Trump’s Ballroom Would Be a Mistake

Democrats should focus on the real MAGA monuments

Dan Pfeiffer

Oct 27

READ IN APP

People are really pissed at Donald Trump for tearing down the East Wing of the White House to build a massive — and likely tacky — ballroom in his own image. I am one of those people. I vented my rage in a post last week. I love that building. I cherished working there. My wife’s office was in the East Wing when she worked for Michelle Obama. Sadly, we will never be able to take our kids to see where she worked.

Beyond my personal attachment to the place, Trump’s unilateral destruction of the White House says something important about his approach to the presidency. As I wrote:

The fact that Trump believes he can demolish part of the White House without consultation or consideration is very telling. The White House is not the President’s house. It’s the people’s house. The people allow the President to rent their house for four years, with the option to extend the lease for four more.

Trump views it as his house — to do whatever he wants, with no regard for what came before or what will come next.

That’s exactly how he thinks about our country and our democracy: something he can tear down and rebuild in his image without regard for anyone else.

I am angrier than I was last week. I don’t expect my anger to recede any time soon. I am not the only one. There is a palpable rage pulsing through the Democratic base. Trump bulldozing the White House to build a corporate-funded ballroom is symbolic of everything we have come to hate and fear about Trump 2.0.

Having said all of this, I think some Democrats are responding in a counterproductive way. Increasingly, Democrats are declaring that if the party wins the White House, they should immediately tear down Trump’s ballroom.

Congressman Eric Swalwell posted on X yesterday:

I understand the emotional appeal of that idea, but let’s be honest: it’s kind of silly, and I think it would be a mistake for Democrats to embrace it.

Here’s why:

1. Think about it for a minute

This argument doesn’t survive five minutes of scrutiny if you step out of our online liberal bubble for a second.

Imagine how hopeful and inspiring it will feel when a Democrat finally turns the page on the Trump era. Consider the mountain of work they’ll inherit: rebuilding large swaths of the federal government, restoring alliances, investigating corruption and criminality, righting wrongs, and closing loopholes that have hollowed out democratic norms.

Is the newly elected president’s first move really going to be swinging a wrecking ball at a part of the White House that was just completed a year or so earlier?

Sure, some people — myself included — would cheer. But most of the country would scratch their heads and wonder why this is a top priority.

Polls show the public doesn’t like Trump tearing down part of the White House to build a ballroom no one needs. How do we think they’ll feel about a Democrat doing the exact same thing?

2. Tearing down the wrong monument

A lot of people calling for immediate demolition are engagement-farming: they want clicks and outrage and the warm approval of Trump haters. There are thinkers, though, who take the idea seriously; Jonathan V. Last at The Bulwark is one example. His argument — that after authoritarian regimes fall, monuments to the authoritarians are removed to prevent future strongmen from cementing power — is worth engaging.

But Trump’s ballroom is a monument to himself only in his own mind. That’s not how most Americans will view it, nor do I think it’s the core symbol that animates the MAGA movement.

The more consequential MAGA monument is ICE as reconstituted under Trump: a corrupt, cruel enforcement apparatus with power over millions of lives. The priority for a Democratic president should be to dismantle the corrupt practices Trump’s administration installed at ICE, reform the agency, and rebuild it to align with constitutional norms and American values. That will mean purging leadership, reassigning problematic personnel, banning abusive tactics, and imposing stringent due-process standards and codes of conduct. And, of course,

Tearing down a ballroom will sting Trump’s vanity. Bulldozing what Trump built at ICE will do far more to weaken his movement and make it harder for future Republican administrations to finish what he started.

3. What would replace it?

Let’s say we take Swalwell or Last’s advice and tear down the ballroom. Something would have to replace it — and there are three ways to pay for the rebuild.

Taxpayer dollars. That would be a political non-starter and look ridiculous given the need to restore agencies like USAID and the Department of Education, and to repair damage in American communities.
Corporate donations. That’s exactly what Trump did. Taking corporate money to pay to demolish his monument would look hypocritical — and could easily reproduce the very pay-to-play dynamic we’re trying to punish.
Grassroots fundraising. Last suggests the millions who protested could each donate $25 to demolish the ballroom. Sure, many would give — but those dollars aren’t renewable. Raising hundreds of millions that way would siphon resources from midterm and presidential campaigns when they’re desperately needed.

4. What Democrats should do instead

I want Trump’s legacy dismantled piece by piece. I want history to show him as a failed, clownish despot. I want his enablers held legally and politically accountable. I want the architects of his corruption to feel the consequences.

But demolishing a newly built ballroom isn’t the best place to spend scarce political capital or money.

A better approach is to target the things that actually matter: institutional capture, corrupt agencies, dangerous policies, and the people who engineered them. Take apart the structures that enabled Trump’s abuses, enforce accountability, and rebuild institutions consistent with democratic norms.

That said, if the goal is to get under his skin, Senator Ruben Gallego floated a deliciously petty, strategic idea on Sunday morning:

Name it the Barack Obama Ballroom.

If you want to hurt Trump’s feelings, force him to watch his enemies dance the night away in a room that bears the name of the man he spent years denigrating. That would sap a lot of his satisfaction — and it costs nothing but a name change.

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