‘Morning Joe’ Says Trump Is Turning the White House Into a ‘Country Club for the Wealthy and Rich’

“Morning Joe” called out President Trump Friday for not only demolishing the East Wing of the White House to make way for his new, extravagant ballroom, but also for doing it at a time when many Americans are struggling because of the ongoing government shutdown saying the new project would only benefit the rich.

“Morning Joe” co-anchor Willie Geist noted at the top of the segment that a recent poll found only 28% of Americans support Trump’s ballroom project. “Who is that 28%? Are these MAGA people that are having trouble paying their car loans and paying their health care costs?” host Joe Scarborough asked in response. “They’re going, ‘Oh, I love the idea of the president deciding in the middle of this crisis and government shutdown to tear down half of the White House and put up a Marie Antoinette Memorial Ballroom?’”

“With everything that’s going on right now, is there no Republican that can go over to the White House and say, ‘Mr. President, you’re really not helping matters here?’” Scarborough inquired again, as he and his fellow panelists touched on the American public’s dwindling view of the Republican Party amid the current shutdown. Journalist Sam Stein echoed Scarborough’s sentiments, marveling at the poor timing of Trump’s White House destruction.

“The metaphor, obviously, of tearing down the White House is one thing, but the building of a structure that’s going to dwarf the White House and to have it financed by the biggest corporations in the world and have it decked out in gold and dangle the possibility that it’s going to be the ‘Donald J. Trump Ballroom’?” Stein explained. “This isn’t genius stuff to realize this is going to backfire on you.”

You can watch the full “Morning Joe” segment yourself in the video below.

Scarborough noted that Trump could have “easily” gotten more public and official support for his ballroom project than he has actually garnered. “If he had done it the right way, if he had talked to others, there would be a lot of people who say, ‘You know what, maybe it’s a good idea when the President of France comes over that we don’t take him out and have to set up a tent to have a state dinner,’” Scarborough explained.

“He actually could have gotten support if he had done something that he doesn’t like doing — that is actually work with other people and set up a ballroom that’s not grotesquely out of proportion with the rest of the White House,” Scarborough continued. “[It’s] the wrong time to be tearing down the East Wing of the White House and proposing the grand ballroom that many people believe will be the Donald J. Trump Grand Ballroom.”

Geist cut in to add that it does not help matters that most everyday Americans will never even get to experience the ballroom themselves. “No average American will ever see the inside of that ballroom,” Geist said. “No average American will sit on that new Mar-a-Lago style patio that was the Rose Garden. He’s creating a country club for the wealthy and rich donors to come and visit him.”