Trump Nemesis Trashes His White House Makeover
Bill Clinton has made it clear how he feels about the president’s new-look White House.
Bill Clinton has brutally mocked President Donald Trump’s tacky White House makeover.
“I think Congress made a mistake not protesting turning the Rose Garden into what looks like the entrance to Liberace’s bathroom,” he said to a laughing crowd in Hollywood, Florida.
Clinton’s reference to the late showman came during a stop on the campaign trail in Florida, where Democrats like David Jolly, running for governor, and Angie Nixon, running for Senate, hope to pull off a once-considered-impossible upset in the ruby-red state.
The newly paved Rose Garden patio at the White House
Annabelle Gordon/Reuters
Trump paved over the Rose Garden last summer to create what Trump dubbed the “Rose Garden Club,” complete with a white stone patio and statues of former presidents. Many have remarked that the space now resembles a Mar-a-Lago patio more than a historic White House space.
It is one of several gaudy projects Trump has commissioned at the White House and across Washington. He also razed the historic East Wing of the White House to make room for his $400 million ballroom, botched a cleanup of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, proposed a 250-foot arch on Columbia Island, and has blinged out the Oval Office with a blinding amount of gold.
There is no shortage of gold-plated trophies and ornaments in the Oval Office these days.
JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images
Clinton also ribbed Trump over his planned arch, which contractors are set to start on early next month.
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“Try to justify building a model of the Arc de Triomphe that’s better than the original, and saying I have to do this because I want to store drones in there,” he said.
Trump has claimed the arch will also serve as a “top-grade” military storage facility.
Bill Clinton is kissed by his dog, Buddy, in the Rose Garden in 1998.
Rick Wilking/Rick Wilking/REUTERS
The Rose Garden is a treasured part of the White House’s history, and Clinton himself hosted the leaders of Jordan and Israel there to sign a historic peace agreement in 1994.
Trump tried to justify the garden’s design, reportedly modeled on his favorite patio at Mar-a-Lago, as a concern for female visitors to the White House.
“Well, what’s happening is… that’s supposed to have events. Every event you have, it’s soaking wet, and the women with the high heels—it’s just too much,” Trump said.
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