White House ballroom project has become costlier and larger than originally anticipated

Donald Trump encouraged those working on the construction of his new White House ballroom project to disregard traditional permitting, zoning, and code requirements, according to a new report.

Since announcing the project in July, Trump’s ballroom has become larger, costlier and more destructive than initially thought – raising concerns about whether the president is following historical rules when it comes to a White House addition.

The ballroom’s capacity, initially thought to be 650, has been raised to 900. Its cost has nearly doubled from $200 million to $350 million. Its construction, which Trump initially said would not interfere with the integrity of the current White House, has led to the destruction of the East Wing.

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[–] 69 points 11 months ago

I'd be surprised if he didn't

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  • [–] 61 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Look on the bright side; hopefully it'll catch on fire due to an electric short, or Canada, or something, during one of Trump's shindigs and him and nine hundred of his “friends” will get trapped inside due to overcrowding and insufficient emergency exits and will burn to death in abject agony.

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  • [–] 115 points 11 months ago (14 children)

    Yes! Disregard the code! Don’t even think about the building code!

    And don’t worry, the ballroom certainly won’t fall down with you inside it, piggy!

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  • [–] 81 points 11 months ago (9 children)

    I have never been horny before in my life, on account of being asexual, but the thought of this ballroom collapsing under shitty building practices while housing the top thousand richest bastards in society, is certainly making me feel something hormonal.

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  • [–] 8 points 11 months ago (7 children)

    Never in your life? I always assumed asexual meant very rarely horny, not literally never. Is that common?

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  • [–] 14 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (5 children)

    Forty years old, still a virgin. Sex-repulsed. Doesn’t cause a problem in my life. Immune to most advertising. Watching people make the same stupid mistakes about birth control time and time again, and never understanding why. My line ends with me and that’s fine.

    Edit: why did people downvote my answer, and not the question asked of me? Does that mean I shouldn’t have answered, or that I should have answered in a sex-positive way, or do they straight-up think ace people aren’t real?

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    What about sexual pleasure like from touch and orgasm?

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  • [–] 6 points 11 months ago* (1 child)

    being sex-repulsed doesn't necessarily mean you don't enjoy self-pleasure. there's not one "kind" of asexuality, there's a spectrum

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  • [–] 6 points 11 months ago

    But also yeah, I can’t have self-pleasure. Doesn’t work. Grosses me out besides. People act like sexual pleasure is the most important thing ever. I’m doing just fine without it. I’m not a problem to be fixed.

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  • [–] 5 points 11 months ago

    You already know what the answer is.

    And besides, I’m intersex. Loads of people take for granted that their genitals formed well-enough.

    I’m not invested in sex or discussions about it. It actually skeeves me out.

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  • [–] 12 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Along those same lines, they should have a Wizard of Oz ball using the original snow recipe from the movie.

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  • [–] 40 points 11 months ago

    White trash doing white trash shit

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  • [–] 37 points 11 months ago* (7 children)

    Code requirements? Dude those are not just useless regulations. Those are for your safety and the soundness of the building. Only a complete moron signs off on a build that ignores building codes. But here we are.

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  • [–] 23 points 11 months ago* (2 children)

    I expect they'll probably follow code anyway? Because you know as soon as dipshit is out of there, they're going to have to inspect that thing for safety reasons. And the contractor probably doesn't want the reputation of building absolute crap.

    On the other hand, if he's as good as picking construction contractors as he is at picking lawyers or cabinet positions, well...

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  • [–] 16 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Seriously. i get ignoring zoning and permitting because fuck everyone else, but skipping CODE requirements just means your building fucking sucks.

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  • [–] 35 points 11 months ago* (2 children)

    All he’s doing is giving a future president an excuse to tear it down. Plus, visiting politicians and influential businesspeople usually don’t like to hang out in unsafe buildings.

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  • [–] 33 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Ignoring the law just because you were told to is no excuse in court.

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  • [–] 30 points 11 months ago (5 children)

    Everything he's doing is probably going to have to be torn down and rebuilt.

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  • [–] 10 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    probably certainly

    FTFY.

    Even if by some miracle it isn't an unsafe, condemned piece of shit, it's still a blight and a travesty of historical proportions that will need to be corrected by restoring it to the previous design.

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  • [–] 17 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Hey, Canada, that's kind of your thing isn't it? Seriously, though, please just burn the while fucking White House to the ground! (again) Cause we're never gonna be able to get Diaper Donnie's stench out, anyway...

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  • [–] 50 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    I am confused, what ballroom is this talking about? Do you mean the Epstein ball room? That makes sense...

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  • [–] 24 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    I think we Canadians would be happy to help with any extensive remodeling your White House requires.

    Maybe you can paint it orange this time.

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  • [–] 24 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)

    Wouldn’t it be a shame if the Epstein Ballroom collapsed in on Donald?

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  • [–] 5 points 11 months ago

    That’s not going to happen because it’s not going to be built. The next president is going to inherit a demolition site and the Republicans are going to complain that the Democrats are denigrating the office of the president by failing to deal with the construction site.

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  • [–] 22 points 11 months ago (4 children)

    If that ballroom is finished by the end of his term, I'll eat my shoes.

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  • [–] 28 points 11 months ago

    If the US gets a new president in 2029, I'll be devastated if they don't take the opportunity to do a major speach or something against the backdrop of a half derelict East Wing - it would be iconic.

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  • [–] 22 points 11 months ago

    They'll have to tear it down inside of ten years, I guarantee it.

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  • [–] 21 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    Please let this end the way I hope it will…..

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  • [–] 33 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    With an electrical fire in a ballroom full of 900 of Trump's enablers and the doors fail to open due to corner cutting?

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  • [–] 8 points 11 months ago

    One major part of fire code in most areas I've ever worked in is that the door access control system must be tied into the fire alarm so an alarm event will kill power to any doors with maglocks. Every door also needs its own exit button to again directly cut power if the automatic motion detector fails to let anyone out. Let's hope those were the things missed.

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  • [–] 19 points 11 months ago (8 children)

    This feels like a Nero burning Rome moment.

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  • [–] 15 points 11 months ago

    Funny thing is, even Nero wasn't this blatantly corrupt and evil. Most of the myth of the 'fiddling while Rome burned' story came as propaganda from his enemies (long after he was dead too). What we're seeing here is undeniable proof that Trump is the biggest POS in America

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  • [–] 14 points 11 months ago (6 children)

    A DC burner instead of a CD burner.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago (2 children)

    You win.

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  • [–] 14 points 11 months ago

    "No one knows more about construction than me."

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  • [–] 22 points 11 months ago

    It's the same playbook as his father in NYC.

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  • [–] 10 points 11 months ago

    so, same standards as his NY condos.

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  • [–] 19 points 11 months ago

    It’s probably filled with foreign listening devices anyway and will need to be completely destroyed

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  • [–] 9 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    Would be hilarious if the schematics of the ultra secret surveillance hardware in and around the wing get leaked to a foreign party.

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  • [–] 9 points 11 months ago

    Burned down, fell over, sank into the swamp

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  • [–] 9 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    White House ballroom project has become costlier and larger than originally anticipated

    You don't say! And nobody except everybody expected this?

    The only other unsurprising thing here is that they managed to balloon it like that while ignoring building permits and code, as many times those cause the ballooning in some way. Incompetence and corruption go far too with ballooning though

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  • [–] 7 points 11 months ago (7 children)

    In my fantasy world the next president will blow up the ballroom with literal dynamite, and then install a row of portable toilets near the white house with dump's stupid fucking face as the toilet seat

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  • [–] 16 points 11 months ago (6 children)

    I think it should be turned into a homeless shelter.

    You shouldn't sit in a seat of such power and prestige without being forced to reconcile the most downtrodden and in-need citizens you are serving.

    Anyway, vote for me in in 2028. My platform is, I'm tired of watching you all fuck this up.

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  • [–] 5 points 11 months ago (5 children)

    Are you less than 60 years old?

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  • [–] 6 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Yes, and with enough margin to serve an unconstitutional number of terms and still be under 60.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago

    Of course. The plan is to do something for those who most need a leg-up, and plans like those don't come from a cohort raised in an era of self-reliance myth.

    Ah. Right. Less than 60. No chance of getting elected.

    Except maybe if you're a stylish dude with good policies you can become mayor of a big city and also woo the commander in cheese.

    AoC/Mamdani 2028? Kick out the bootstraps?

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  • [–] 7 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    the extent to which i don't care about this is astonishing.

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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago

    We all should care. Not only is the east wing destroyed but that’s $350M taxpayers money down the drain. If it doesn’t meet building code we’ll also be on the hook to rebuild it. This is yet more harm to the country and its people.

    …… while I’m aware taco Don claimed to have secret private donors, does anyone remember how it went for Mexico paying for his stupid wall?

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  • [+] 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 child)
  • [–] 6 points 11 months ago (4 children)

    Stop clutching your pearls and buy guns.

    Americans and ignoring the obvious solutions- can’t think of a more on-brand way to handle this

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  • [–] 6 points 11 months ago

    Taking others land without permission is on brand of "American values" tho.

    He's only going back to its roots

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  • [–] 10 points 11 months ago*

    What a surprise? Trump is cheating again! Who woulda thunk it, other than EVERYBODY?

    And in this case, cheating is even stupider. He's not a normal developer in this case, he's not paying for this, he doesn't have to wait for anything, he can expedite anything he wants. There is no reason to not do this by the book, but Trump is one of those guys (I've known several) who when offered a choice between the honest way, and the dishonest way, they will take the dishonest way every time, because they think that somehow it will get them something extra, even if it doesn't. It's just their nature to cheat at everything.

    But the Dems assure us that the 2024 election was totally "fair & square," and Donald Trump didn't cheat in the only election that would literally keep him from a life sentence in prison. Sure, he's cheated on literally EVERYTHING ELSE IN HIS LIFE, just for fun, but he didn't cheat to keep himself out of prison. Makes sense.

    No wonder Democrats lose every election.

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  • [–] 5 points 11 months ago

    presidential death trap

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