Photos show White House ruined by 'construction chaos' as Trump ignores voter concerns
Left
New photos of the White House show it immersed in what the Daily Beast calls “construction chaos” as President Donald Trump continues to prioritize his vanity projects over voter concerns. The grounds were already swamped with construction as Trump’s controversial ballroom project progresses regardless of vocal opposition, and now “the People’s House” is being further blighted by renovations as the president prepares to mark his 80th birthday with UFC cage matches in front of the White House this June.According to Republican operatives who spoke with the Daily Beast, the construction projects don’t just look ugly, but are sending a negative message to Americans struggling with skyrocketing prices and a spiraling economy due to Trump’s war with Iran. “For voters, the message that is coming from the White House is Trump is focused on vanity projects and foreign policy,” said one operative. “And those are things that voters don’t care about.” “Trump continues to talk about things that no one cares about,” agreed another. With 90 percent of Americans reporting an affordability crisis, Trump is persistent in his denial. When asked about the economic downturn, he claimed, “This is peanuts. I appreciate everybody putting up with it for a little while. It won’t be much longer.” He made the statement while standing in front of his ballroom construction “eyesore.”In early May, Trump was even more blunt about where he places the American pocketbook on his list of priorities. When asked how much the finances of Americans factored into his war considerations, he declared, “Not even a little bit… I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation.”At the same time, Trump is asking for big money to pay for his vanity projects, which continue to grow in number. For the ballroom alone, he’s demanding that Congress provide as much as $1 billion, even though he began the project saying its $400 million price tag would be paid by private donors. On top of that, he wants an estimated $100 million to build a 250-foot arch that will loom over DC, has allocated $40 million for a statuary garden, is pouring over $13 million into repainting the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool (a project that has already been botched), has spent untold sums renovating the White House to align with his taste for golden trim, and the list goes on.While the White House UFC event will supposedly be paid for by the fighting organization, Trump’s decision to hold it at all has been criticized as unpresidential, even by some in the MMA community. Star fighter Brandon Royval, for example, has referred to it as “some kind of Hunger Games type f—— s——.”
Despite publicly appearing defiant about Iran peace negotiations, President Donald Trump is allegedly backing away from a deal with Iran under extreme internal pressure from Israel and its domestic allies, according to Israeli-American academic Shaiel Ben-Ephraim. Ben-Ephraim cited sources indicating Trump is reconsidering the agreement, describing it as a "terrifying turn of events." Washington and Tehran have already agreed in principle on a deal to end the U.S. war against Iran, though finalization remains pending, The New York Times reports. But prominent right-wing figures including former CIA Director Mike Pompeo, Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Trump ally Laura Loomer have urged Trump to abandon negotiations. Loomer claimed there is "no such thing as peace with Muslims" and urged bombing Iran's regime on X.Bloomberg reported Trump faces both internal and external pressure, specifically from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and media mogul Rupert Murdoch. On Saturday, Trump said there's a "50/50" chance of authorizing military strikes, according to reports by Axios.Watch the video below. Your browser does not support the video tag.
Reports of Donald Trump's scheduled visit to Walter Reed Medical Center sent social media into a frenzy on Monday, with reactions ranging from alarm to dismissal — and one popular influencer asking the question many were thinking but few were saying out loud."Is this the day?" wrote a liberal social media influencer and self-identified U.S. Air Force veteran responding to the Daily Mail's breaking news alert about Trump's third hospital visit in 13 months.Not everyone shared the sense of urgency.Conservative influencer Catturd, one of the most followed accounts on X and popular with MAGA entities, pushed back hard on the coverage. "Any headline you're reading about Trump being rushed to the hospital is a lie," they wrote, adding in a separate post: "This is a routine annual physical. Garbage headline."A more measured critique came from European correspondent Bastian Brauns, who questioned the Daily Mail's "breaking news" framing entirely. "This is not really 'Breaking,'" he wrote. "The White House informed about Trump's visit of Walter Reed Medical Center already on May 11th. So this sounds more like sensationalism."The White House has described the visit as a routine medical and dental checkup. Trump has previously visited Walter Reed in April 2025 for his annual physical and returned in October for what the administration called a "scheduled follow-up."
The antiwar group CodePink it has yet to be served with any subpoenas after it was reported over the weekend that the Trump administration has opened an investigation into a recent humanitarian trip it helped organize to Cuba, but vehemently denied wrongdoing and said any government probe, if there is one, would only show that “this administration is beyond grotesque.”“Taking medical supplies to pediatric hospitals in Cuba is now a crime?” asked co-founder Medea Benjamin on social media on Saturday after Fox News reported that organizers had been served subpoenas. “Saving the lives of babies is a crime?”Fox reported that Benjamin and left-wing commentator Hasan Piker had been subpoenaed by federal investigators two months after they were among 40 Americans who sailed to Havana on the Nuestra America Convoy, which carried 20 tons of humanitarian aid to the island nation.The Fox reporting claimed the subpoenas issued to Benjamin and Piker seek to obtain financial, logistical, and communications information related to the trip, which was organized in response to the Trump administration’s decision in late January to threaten to impose tariffs on any country that provided Cuba with oil.The administration cut off Cuba’s main source of fuel at the beginning of the year when it sent US troops into Venezuela to abduct President Nicolás Maduro and took control of the country’s vast oil supply.White House officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, have long desired regime change in the communist country, and rights advocates have warned the administration appears to be moving toward just that as it strangles the island’s oil supply—causing frequent blackouts and impacting the healthcare and food systems—and claims the Cuban government poses a threat to the US.In organizing the Nuestra America Convoy, said Benjamin on Sunday, the advocates were acting “as moral US citizens trying to bring some relief to a population being deliberately starved by the cruel policies of our own government.”“This policy has contributed to catastrophic shortages of medicine and electricity, massive blackouts, transportation collapse, and a public health crisis that has hurt the most vulnerable, especially children and the elderly,” said Benjamin. “It is a policy that is, literally, killing babies, as we have seen in the recent tragic doubling of the infant mortality rate. This is why we focused our donations on medical supplies for pediatric hospitals.”The blockade is compounding the suffering caused by the trade embargo the US has imposed for decades, said Benjamin.The Cuban Assets Control Regulations law prohibits US citizens from conducting unlicensed travel-related transations with Cuba, but the law makes exceptions for humanitarian endeavors and other activities aimed at supporting the Cuban people.“We traveled to Cuba under the US government-authorized category of providing humanitarian aid to the Cuban people. We brought desperately needed medicines and medical supplies at a time when Cuba is suffering catastrophic shortages caused by the crippling US blockade,” said Benjamin.Benjamin, Piker, and Drop Site News co-founder Ryan Grim emphasized that the group stayed in Spanish-owned hotels that are “explicitly permitted under” the US law—while right-wing influencer Nick Shirley allegedly stayed in a sanctioned hotel on a recent trip to Cuba.“It is outrageous that the US government would target people for bringing humanitarian aid to suffering Cuban children,” Benjamin said. “But even more disturbing is the cruel and deeply immoral policy the United States continues to impose on Cuba—a policy designed to strangle the island economically, deprive people of food, fuel, medicine, and basic necessities, and make daily life unbearable.”Piker said the reports of the investigation indicate that “the American government would rather try to criminalize delivering aid to a country we’ve starved, than punish the Epstein class.”Benjamin emphasized that the reports of the probe come as the administration intensified its threats against Cuba, having indicted former President Raúl Castro last week on charges related to the shooting down of a plane operated by Cuban-American exiles in the 1990s. Trump and his allies have repeatedly mused about invading the country following his military attacks on Venezuela and Iran.“President Trump already has his hands full trying to disentangle himself from the disastrous US war with Iran,” said Benjamin. “He should not start another one in Cuba. The American people are tired of endless wars, interventions, sanctions, and suffering imposed in our name.”
Donald Trump on Monday shared a post on Truth Social blaming former President Barack Obama for the United States' ongoing war with Iran, amplifying a meme that depicted Obama next to a pallet of cash with the caption: "Don't forget the one who funded Iran and caused this war to happen. OBAMA!"The image is a reference to a $400 million cash payment the Obama administration made to Iran in January 2016, which the White House at the time said was a longstanding legal dispute over a failed arms deal predating the Islamic Revolution. Critics, including Trump, have long characterized the payment as a ransom — a characterization the Obama administration denied.The post came from a pro-Trump account called WomenForTrump and was reshared by the president without comment.The timing is notable. Trump is currently engaged in active ceasefire negotiations with Iran and has spent the weekend praising what he called a "professional and productive" relationship with Tehran — a striking contrast to the inflammatory framing of the post he chose to amplify on Monday morning.It also comes just days after Trump's own Truth Social base revolted against his Iran diplomacy, with supporters accusing him of repeating Obama's mistakes and demanding military action rather than negotiation.
In a late May video with liberal journalist Molly Jong-Fast, The Lincoln Project's Rick Wilson — a Never Trump conservative and former GOP strategist — argued that President Donald Trump is so desperate to get the United States out of its war with Iran that he's willing accept a bad deal with the Iranian regime in Tehran. But according to i Paper reporter Simon Marks, doing so could alienate hawkish Republicans who supported Trump's military strikes against Iran."Hell hath no fury like a Republican scorned, and this weekend, even before the ink is dry on Donald Trump's partial peace deal with Iran, the anger and visceral was already piling up," Marks explains in the UK-based i Paper. "Many of Trump's backers fear the U.S. president is surrendering to Tehran's interests. Trump was already on the receiving end of Republican lawmakers' fury over last week's hastily proposed 'weaponization' fund that could see taxpayer money paid to convicted-then-pardoned rioters who ransacked the Capitol on 6 January 2021. His announcement that peace could soon be at hand with Iran sent many of them into overdrive."Republicans who are voicing their concerns about a possible Iran deal include Sens. Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham.In a May 23 post on X, Cruz wrote, "I am deeply concerned about what we are hearing about an Iran 'deal'…. If the result of all that is to be an Iranian regime — still run by Islamists who chant 'death to America' — now receiving billions of dollars, being able to enrich uranium & develop nuclear weapons, and having effective control over the Strait of Hormuz, then that outcome would be a disastrous mistake…. President Trump believes in peace through strength, and his strong leadership has already made America much safer. He should continue to hold the line, defend America & enforce the red lines he has repeatedly drawn."Graham, on X, wrote that if the war leaves the Iranian regime even stronger, "we will have poured gasoline on the conflicts in Lebanon and Iraq." Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who served in the first Trump Administration, is urging Trump to "open the damned Strait" of Hormuz, "deny Iran access to money," and "take out enough Iranian capability so it cannot threaten our allies in the region."But White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung attacked Pompeo in a snarky response, saying, "Mike Pompeo has no idea what the f–– he's talking about. He should shut his stupid mouth and leave the real work to the professionals."
Early Saturday evening, May 23 during Memorial Day Weekend, U.S. Secret Service agents exchanged fire with a gunman who was approaching a White House security checkpoint in Washington, DC. The gunman was killed, and President Donald Trump is responding to the incident by arguing that it makes a case for his White House ballroom. And Trump's legal team makes that argument in a court filing posted online the day after the incident.Politico legal affairs reporter Josh Gerstein posted the six-page legal document on X, formerly Twitter, noting how decidedly Trumpian the language in the filing is.Gerstein tweeted, "JUST IN: Another court filing obviously written by Trump, seeks to leverage shooting Saturday to end litigation over WH ballroom project. Calls latest episode 'assassination attempt.' Cites news reports, but no other proof/legal cases. Ends w/a '!"The filing in National Trust For Historic Preservation, Plaintiff, v. National Park Service, as Gerstein points out, is full of Trump Administration talking points."On Saturday night, May 23rd," the document reads, "a shooter once again sought to murder the President, his family, and his staff at the historic White House complex. We submit this urgent filing to update the Court on a second attempted assassination on the President within a single month. Last night, shortly after 6:00 p.m., an armed assassin approached a White House security checkpoint near 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, professionally pulled a high caliber gun from a bag, and opened fire in the exact direction of the White House. Brave Secret Service officers returned fire. The gunman was killed and an innocent bystander was seriously wounded in the shooting."Many of Trump's critics are attacking the proposed ballroom as a vanity project that will cost taxpayers a fortune. But the court filing claims that the ballroom is necessary from a national security standpoint."This second attack on the President this month underscores the critical need for top level, state of the art security at the White House, including the Ballroom, a knitted, unified, cohesive part of the East Wing Project, which is vital for National Security, and is being constructed to ensure that the President can perform his constitutional duties in a safe and heavily secured facility," the filing states. "This court's unlawful injunction has wrongfully cast a cloud of uncertainty around the future of the entire East Wing Project, which is being constructed for the physical safety and security of all Presidents, their families, staff, Foreign Dignitaries, and guests. When completed, this highly knitted, integrated, and unified Project, which is a singular and vital National Security facility, will provide a 'SAFE HAVEN' from attackers such as the one last night, and on April 25th. It will provide a highly secure space for future Inaugurations, and other major events, such as the recent visit of the King and Queen of the United Kingdom, and the coming visit in September of President Xi of China." The document also states that the "under construction East Wing Project, which is on time and under budget, includes state of the art security features to repel all attacks against the President, his family, his staff, and esteemed visitors.""These include a heavy steel, drone proof roof, missile resistant and drone proof columns, bullet, ballistic, and blast proof glass, Military grade venting for air conditioning and heating, and much more," the Trump Administration writes. "Together, the entire Facility, which includes bomb shelters, a state of the art hospital and medical facilities, Top Secret military installations, structures, and equipment, protective partitioning, and other features, is a single integrated, complex unit that is vital for the National Security of the United States."
President Donald Trump is set to speak at Arlington National Cemetery as part of the commemoration of Memorial Day on Monday. Trump is expected to speak at noon from Arlington, Virginia, after participating in a wreath-laying ceremony at the cemetery across the Potomac River from Washington. TRUMP SAYS IRAN AGREEMENT ‘HAS BEEN LARGELY NEGOTIATED’ AND […]
