The White House is once again thrust into construction chaos.
New photos show the scale of upheaval as Donald Trump treats the people’s house like a pet project.The president is preparing the White House for his all-American UFC extravaganza on June 14—a night of cage matches on the South Lawn celebrating both the nation’s 250th birthday and Trump’s 80th.
But the cage construction, combined with the 79-year-old’s ongoing $400 million White House ballroom blitz, has turned the White House grounds into an eyesore.
The renovations are more than just a blight on the property. They are also sending a message to Americans amid surging prices and an affordability crisis, worsened by Trump’s war on Iran, Republican operatives told Reuters.
“For voters, the message that is coming from the White House is Trump is focused on vanity projects and foreign policy, and those are things that voters don’t care about,” an operative told the outlet.
Another chimed in: “Trump continues to talk about things that no one cares about.”
Still, the president appears unable to grasp the scale of the cost-of-living crisis that nine in ten Americans say they are facing.
“This is peanuts,” Trump said Tuesday of the economic downturn since the Iran war. Standing in front of the construction site for his beloved ballroom, he added: “I appreciate everybody putting up with it for a little while. It won’t be much longer.”
One thing is certain: compared to Trump’s obsession with construction, the economy really does appear to be peanuts. A recent Reuters analysis found that the president has mentioned the ballroom 40 times in public remarks this year, including nine times this month alone.
A White House official did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Beast.
But in recent days, the president has attempted to reframe the ballroom as a “shield” for a massive, multi-level subterranean bunker reportedly being constructed beneath it. The messaging shift came just days before a gunman opened fire near the White House on Saturday night. Secret Service officers returned fire, striking 21-year-old Nasire Best, who later died in the hospital.
Court records show Best was arrested last July after entering a restricted area near the White House and ignoring commands to stop, according to The New York Times.
The latest security scare comes after multiple public assassination attempts against Trump over the past year.
The president has offered no similar justification for the wrestling spectacle itself. Last week, the UFC posted a rendering of the event on X showing a massive platform beside Trump’s paved-over Rose Garden, complete with cheering spectators and oversized patriotic imagery.
The rendering also appeared to feature an American flag with just 48 stars.
