One of Donald Trump’s fiercest late-night critics has taken a swing at the president for apparently forgetting his main reason for building his oversized White House ballroom.
Comedian Seth Meyers was talking about the lavish reception the 80-year-old president laid out for Chinese dictator Xi Jinping when the topic came up on Monday night.
The host, who is a frequent target of Trump’s anger, pointed out that the president had allowed the Chinese Communist Party boss to sneak a peek inside the ballroom, which is at least a year from being finished, during an official visit last week.
Meyers played footage of Trump at the White House on Thursday night, inviting Xi and other guests to step through “that beautiful curtain in the back” to take a look around as a “special treat.”
The comic quickly compared that offer to something you might expect to hear from the last person who ever saw you alive.
“If someone invites you to go through ‘that beautiful curtain in the back’, you need to get the f-–k outta there,” he said. “It’s like the first scene in a horror movie that takes place in an antiques store.”
Meyers then noted that the president’s decision to invite Xi to take a look seems to contradict Trump’s main justification for spending an estimated $600 million on the project. At least half of those costs are being met by taxpayers, despite earlier pledges that the ballroom would be funded entirely from private donations.
“Isn’t this bulls-–t ballroom of yours supposed to include a bunch of top secret military facilities?” Meyers wondered. He then pulled up a graphic of a Truth Social post from the president, addressing plans to house “Top Secret Military Facilities” at the site.
“If it does, maybe don’t do the tour with the heads of foreign governments?” Meyers went on. “Must be so easy to be a spy these days.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment on this story.
