As the new Rose Garden patio was coming together, Trump interrupted an Oval Office meeting with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to show off the new outdoor Bang & Olufsen sound system being installed (same brand as at Mar-a-Lago).
- “We have a great speaker system,” Trump, microphone in hand, boasted on Sept. 5 when he inaugurated the new “Rose Garden Club.” The guest list consisted of trusted Cabinet secretaries and advisers, and lawmakers who are reliable votes for his plans.
- “You are the ones that I never had to call at 4 o’clock in the morning,” he said.
“He’s stamping his legacy on the presidency and on the White House forever,” one senior adviser said. “No one can get rid of the ballroom. It will be difficult to take all of the gold away. Who would even do that?”
- “President [George W.] Bush liked to paint. Trump likes to build and design. This is his artistic outlet,” a White House aide said, describing the “perfectionist” tendencies of the Luxury Resort Owner-in-Chief.
Bush didn’t spend his time painting while he was still in the White House.
Trump is semi-retired. Miller and Vought are calling the shots domestically and, God help us, I think Hegseth and Rubio are doing it internationally. Trump steps in if it’s a pet project, maybe to knock some heads or lobby for the Peace Prize, but other than that he’s only half there at best.
I mean:
He’s devoting more and more time to this stuff. I wrote about his dream of a 250 anniversary celebratory Arc de Trump the other day. And then there’s the ballroom:
- Trump also 3D printed models of the ballroom on a diorama of the White House grounds that he fidgets with in the dining room during meals.
- “The tenser things are, the more he moves the [diorama] pieces around in his spare time, or he takes a break and thinks about the marble he wants or the columns, whether they’re going to be Corinthian or not,” a White House official said.
Another aide said Trump “worked every single detail you can think of … from where the bathrooms and plumbing are, to how many people will be able to sit in the ballroom, what material to use for the floor and the walls. How big the windows will be. He is literally the project manager.”
There’s more:
- Trees on the South Lawn: He hated the look of some of the newer oaks, birch and maples and began replacing them with trees that have broader canopies and that, to him, are more aesthetically pleasing.
- The Palm Room: Late last month, Trump redid the hall connecting the front of the White House to the Rose Garden and West Colonnade by ripping up the tiles and replacing them with statuary marble. He insisted on “bookmatching” the new tiles so that the marble veins line up and make the floor appear as if it’s one giant slab. He replaced the overhead lights with two Schonbeck chandeliers.
“This is all the president’s baby,” one of the advisers said. “It’s the Trump White House.”
He’s apparently also giving hour long White House tours to his MAGA visitors and getting their opinions on the tile.
This is not a president who is engaged in the presidency. He’s a part-time, semi-retired set decorator who dabbles in politics in his spare time.
Also, he’s got severe encroaching dementia.
Update —
He is also losing his hearing.