John Oliver poked fun at President Donald Trump’s $300 million ballroom at an event highlighting that 12 million children in the U.S. grow up in poverty each year.
“It is wild... to get a news alert saying President Donald Trump just demolished the East Wing of the White House,” the comedian said on Wednesday at Comic Relief Live in New York City, a charity event packed with performers who poked fun at the “moment of history” we’re living in.
“Thirty years ago, every element of that sentence would have sounded completely insane,” Oliver said, before quoting the 79-year-old president who said in the past that people are “loving” his plan to demolish the wing and have wanted a White House ballroom for 150 years—but that “there’s never been a president that’s good at ballrooms.”
“Nobody gives a f--- about ballrooms, apart from people who like ballrooms… who are all a-----es,” Oliver said, prompting laughter in the crowd.
Trump’s proposed ballroom project has only grown in price and size. In July, when the construction was first announced, it was priced at $200 million, with a planned footprint of 90,000 square feet and seating for 600 people. The gilded project is now $100 million over budget and expected to seat 900.
Despite the president’s claim that the ballroom is something “needed and desired,” public support for its construction is sharply divided along partisan lines, with a large majority of Americans strongly disapproving of demolishing the East Wing to build it.
Before its teardown, the East Wing traditionally housed the Office of the First Lady. According to the Wall Street Journal, Melania Trump, 55, “privately raised concerns” about its demolition, with even her husband noting that she “loved her tiny office.” However, she now calls the demolition “great.”
As the Comic Relief night went on, comedian Trevor Noah—who received an honor for his foundation and was presented with his award by Mexican-born Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’o—mentioned the first lady, whose East Wing is being demolished.
“They told me… we have a surprise for you, a very successful immigrant woman is going to present,” Noah said, before adding, “I was like, oh my God, Melania’s coming,” joking that he was disappointed to find out it was Nyong’o who presented the award—“just someone who played a prisoner.”
Noah went on to say that he felt fortunate the Trevor Noah Foundation, which was honored that night, wasn’t affected by the Trump administration’s sudden cut to USAID—a move that left many children in other countries without the food they needed, and in some cases, cost lives.
The Comic Relief event highlighted the urgency of ending child poverty, with comedians using laughter to remind the crowd that the cause is more important than ever.
As The Daily Show star Ronny Chieng put it during the event, these are times when the “vibes” are “off.”
