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Friday, October 31, 2025
White House Movie Theater Demolished in President Trump Ballroom Build
www.hollywoodreporter.com: The White House family theater, which has held movie screenings for Presidents, their families and other invited guests for decades, is among the structures removed from the East Wing as part of President Trump’s $300 million ballroom project.
7 comments:
Emma L
said...
What makes me so incredibly angry about this “remodel” is that not only does it include tearing down historical spaces but that it is so unnecessary and is a waste of the government’s spending. This is very clearly just a power move to show that DJT can do whatever the hell he wants and the fact that this has been one of the bigger topics in media recently also means that it is yet another distraction from all of the horrible destructive things he is doing. He clearly has no respect for the arts or for America. He is treating the presidency like he is a toddler who got told he can do whatever he wants instead of trying to help the American people. This is yet another example of how he only thinks about himself and how he can “leave his mark” in ways that are basically like a dog peeing to mark his territory.
Going through with the demolition and reconstruction of the white house during an almost record breaking shutdown is a great summation of Trump’s presidency. The fact that this is also privately funded by corporations that are essentially being extorted by settling erroneous cases after being threatened by Trump’s wild mood swing policy agenda. Ripping apart the old movie theatre to put in the ballroom is also typical to erasing the past and history to rewrite and coverup as well as what has been done at all the national parks throughout the country. The timing of the reconstruction and erasing an important piece of diplomatic history is as poor as his economic and labor policy. With the debt increasing at an exorbitant rate he is allowing the country to suffer as he drains the funds into the riches coffers with tax breaks, settlements, and golf trips. The gall of corporate greed.
I think this project is overall a gross misuse of power by the current administration that exemplifies a precedent of overstepping and generally caring about the wrong thing. This has been described as, “the president’s #1 priority” by his spokesperson while violence is being carried out in other parts of the world and our own country. It’s also just a disappointing destruction of our country’s history. The east wing stood for over 100 years, serving many purposes for many important individuals who worked in that building. The movie theater was not a part of it I was aware of until now, though. I think the Trump administration is destroying great parts of our history while totally displaying that its priorities are nowhere near in the right place. The movie theater may not be a necessary feature of the White House, but it was never necessary to demolish such a significant structure of the United States.
This makes me so unbelievably mad and he has absolutely no right to be destroying anything within the white house. It is ridiculous that this is what he’s been doing during this government shutdown and this is just so descriptive of his presidency and the way he is running this country. The east wing of the white house is literally like 100 years old, historical, and he demolishes part of it because of the theatre. Trump has been displaying where his priorities lie and this seems to be one of them. He and his administration have been destroying parts of our history and there is nothing we can do about it which feels terrible. Why is he even putting in a ballroom anyway? It’s so problematic especially with the labor crisis and the economy at the moment, yet he is having construction done on the white house anyway, ripping out history and the movie theater, just for his own purposes.
I feel like perhaps I should somewhat stay calm about this but what in the fascist Marie Antoinette is happening to our world. All of these private donors want to fund a ballroom but nobody cares about the millions of Americans that just lost SNAP. Oh yes, how about we put all of our money and attention into the pretty room instead of the citizens. Frankly, I don’t care one single bit about the movie theater. I don’t care what any of the presidents have watched from there. I don’t care about the new ballroom. It’s crazy how easily privilege takes over and we forget about the other living breathing humans on this planet. It’s just insane that this is worth anyone’s attention right now when we could be uplifting each other and working towards making sure everyone gets fed, which you would expect to be the government's job but actually the pretty little building is more important, yes that makes sense. I’m just thinking about how much of Billie Eilishe’s net worth she just donated to attempt to keep other people in this world from starving and how much praise she’s getting as if that’s not the bare minimum for anyone with that amount of wealth. Maybe our president could learn a thing or two from her about kindness.
As insane as this story is, I’m not sure whether or not to be inclined to think more people should be paying attention to this or if more people should be ignoring it. It’s too late to consider the moral or ethical implications of a move like this from a historical or symbolic standpoint, the East Wing has already been demolished. This seems to be a common theme with this administration, and again my hesitancy to care about this story stems from the fact that we’re being OVERLOADED with political controversies and devastating stories in the news before we can even think about the implications. The swiftness of this administration, from policy to White House demolitions is clearly purposeful, hence why, though I think this is an insanely big deal from a moral and historical standpoint of the White House family theater, there is a lot more devastating news, especially when it comes to art and film, to be concerned about. I’m upset in believing that, but sure in believing that we have bigger fish to fry right now.
7 comments:
What makes me so incredibly angry about this “remodel” is that not only does it include tearing down historical spaces but that it is so unnecessary and is a waste of the government’s spending. This is very clearly just a power move to show that DJT can do whatever the hell he wants and the fact that this has been one of the bigger topics in media recently also means that it is yet another distraction from all of the horrible destructive things he is doing. He clearly has no respect for the arts or for America. He is treating the presidency like he is a toddler who got told he can do whatever he wants instead of trying to help the American people. This is yet another example of how he only thinks about himself and how he can “leave his mark” in ways that are basically like a dog peeing to mark his territory.
Going through with the demolition and reconstruction of the white house during an almost record breaking shutdown is a great summation of Trump’s presidency. The fact that this is also privately funded by corporations that are essentially being extorted by settling erroneous cases after being threatened by Trump’s wild mood swing policy agenda. Ripping apart the old movie theatre to put in the ballroom is also typical to erasing the past and history to rewrite and coverup as well as what has been done at all the national parks throughout the country. The timing of the reconstruction and erasing an important piece of diplomatic history is as poor as his economic and labor policy. With the debt increasing at an exorbitant rate he is allowing the country to suffer as he drains the funds into the riches coffers with tax breaks, settlements, and golf trips. The gall of corporate greed.
I think this project is overall a gross misuse of power by the current administration that exemplifies a precedent of overstepping and generally caring about the wrong thing. This has been described as, “the president’s #1 priority” by his spokesperson while violence is being carried out in other parts of the world and our own country. It’s also just a disappointing destruction of our country’s history. The east wing stood for over 100 years, serving many purposes for many important individuals who worked in that building. The movie theater was not a part of it I was aware of until now, though. I think the Trump administration is destroying great parts of our history while totally displaying that its priorities are nowhere near in the right place. The movie theater may not be a necessary feature of the White House, but it was never necessary to demolish such a significant structure of the United States.
This makes me so unbelievably mad and he has absolutely no right to be destroying anything within the white house. It is ridiculous that this is what he’s been doing during this government shutdown and this is just so descriptive of his presidency and the way he is running this country. The east wing of the white house is literally like 100 years old, historical, and he demolishes part of it because of the theatre. Trump has been displaying where his priorities lie and this seems to be one of them. He and his administration have been destroying parts of our history and there is nothing we can do about it which feels terrible. Why is he even putting in a ballroom anyway? It’s so problematic especially with the labor crisis and the economy at the moment, yet he is having construction done on the white house anyway, ripping out history and the movie theater, just for his own purposes.
nat m
I feel like perhaps I should somewhat stay calm about this but what in the fascist Marie Antoinette is happening to our world. All of these private donors want to fund a ballroom but nobody cares about the millions of Americans that just lost SNAP. Oh yes, how about we put all of our money and attention into the pretty room instead of the citizens. Frankly, I don’t care one single bit about the movie theater. I don’t care what any of the presidents have watched from there. I don’t care about the new ballroom. It’s crazy how easily privilege takes over and we forget about the other living breathing humans on this planet. It’s just insane that this is worth anyone’s attention right now when we could be uplifting each other and working towards making sure everyone gets fed, which you would expect to be the government's job but actually the pretty little building is more important, yes that makes sense. I’m just thinking about how much of Billie Eilishe’s net worth she just donated to attempt to keep other people in this world from starving and how much praise she’s getting as if that’s not the bare minimum for anyone with that amount of wealth. Maybe our president could learn a thing or two from her about kindness.
As insane as this story is, I’m not sure whether or not to be inclined to think more people should be paying attention to this or if more people should be ignoring it. It’s too late to consider the moral or ethical implications of a move like this from a historical or symbolic standpoint, the East Wing has already been demolished. This seems to be a common theme with this administration, and again my hesitancy to care about this story stems from the fact that we’re being OVERLOADED with political controversies and devastating stories in the news before we can even think about the implications. The swiftness of this administration, from policy to White House demolitions is clearly purposeful, hence why, though I think this is an insanely big deal from a moral and historical standpoint of the White House family theater, there is a lot more devastating news, especially when it comes to art and film, to be concerned about. I’m upset in believing that, but sure in believing that we have bigger fish to fry right now.
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