TROLLING TIME

White House Launches Bonkers Defense of East Wing Teardown

The White House website was not spared from President Donald Trump’s renovations.

The White House has unveiled a bizarre revamp of a webpage dedicated to the history of the presidential residence, apparently to troll critics of its renovations.

An official government webpage about the history of the White House has been updated to include petty references to controversies that rocked previous administrations, including Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky and the discovery of cocaine in the West Wing lobby during Joe Biden’s term.

At the start of October, the page looked as it had for years: containing a snapshot of the White House facade and an extensive history of the structure, from George Washington’s selection of the site in 1971 to the completion of Harry Truman’s renovations in 1952.

But it appears that not even the White House webpage was spared in President Donald Trump’s push to remake the complex in his image.

The website now contains a “Major Events Timeline” that starts innocently enough with historical facts about the White House, including its reconstruction after the War of 1812.

But scrolling further down the timeline eventually reveals multiple digs at former Democratic presidents.

In 1998, the page states, was the infamous Clinton-Lewinsky scandal: “President Bill Clinton’s affair with intern Monica Lewinsky was exposed, leading to White House perjury investigations. The Oval Office trysts fueled impeachment for obstruction.”

Under the year 2012, there was a photo of Barack Obama wearing a traditional African garment, with the webpage stating: “Obama hosts members of the Muslim Brotherhood, a group that promotes Islamist extremism and has ties to Hamas."

The site also references the discovery of cocaine in the West Wing in 2023 during Biden’s presidency. The Trump administration used a photo of Biden’s son Hunter, a recovering drug user, writing that “speculation has pointed to Hunter Biden, an admitted drug user.”

The page also trolls the Biden administration for hosting transgender people—using the outdated term “transsexuals”—at the White House in 2023 and establishing a Transgender Day of Visibility in 2024.

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung appeared to confirm that the website revamp was intended to troll critics. In response to a journalist pointing out the changes, Cheung posted an emoji of a coy giggle on X.

The timeline proceeds to tout Trump’s many renovations since returning to power in January, including the installation of new flagpoles and gaudy changes to the Oval Office.

Several other portions of the webpage are dedicated to defending the demolition of the 123-year-old East Wing to make space for Trump’s swanky, 90,000-square-foot ballroom, whose cost has now ballooned to $300 million.

“For 150 years, Presidents, Administrations, and White House Staff have longed for a large event space on the White House complex that can hold substantially more guests than currently allowed,” it reads. “President Donald J. Trump has expressed his commitment to solving this problem on behalf of future Administrations and the American people.”

Edward Lengel, former Chief Historian of the White House Historical Association, said previous presidents have indeed wanted more space to host events, but described Trump’s sweeping changes as “antithetical to what the founders intended for the White House.”

“There are different founders who had different ideas. Washington wanted it to be bigger. Thomas Jefferson wanted it to be smaller. But what they all agreed upon is that this was the People’s house, the residence of the First American, but meant to represent the people, to represent a democracy accessible to [the] people,” he told the Daily Beast.

TOUGH SELL

Poll Reveals How Much Americans Hate Trump White House Plans

Leigh Kimmins

A YouGov poll found that 53 percent of Americans disapprove of the East Wing demolition, but the White House thinks critics of the renovation are just jealous.

“I believe there’s a lot of fake outrage right now because nearly every single president who has lived in this beautiful White House behind me has made modernizations and renovations of their own,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News.

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