The Democrats had just won the House and the Senate in a landslide election. His vice president put out a long and scathing tweet about how the Iran war caused it. He told people to act like he was on the ballot and they wiped out his party. And everyone was waiting to see what Donald Trump would say.
It was lunchtime on Wednesday when he finally emerged to make a speech amid construction work at the soon-to-be ballroom. And to say that he came out fighting would be…entirely inaccurate. The person who came out was, instead, a frail and strange old man who just wanted to talk about building things.
There was no opener about the elections, no nod toward the Republicans being wiped out; no contrition (which we expected) and no bombast (which we expected.) No, instead there was stuff about the beams in the ballroom. The beams are really special and the monuments in DC are looking great, he said. People are dining in nice restaurants in Washington again.
It was similar to the bizarre speech outside the Reflecting Pool he gave Monday afternoon, when he spoke at length about algae and granite and held up pictures of joints and pipes as the nation expected a closing argument on the midterm elections. There was a bit of classic Trumpian stuff about how he had to make beautiful ballrooms and clean up DC because young tourists from Iowa would come to see the White House and get murdered; about how there used to be “three murders a week by savages” who “came in through open borders,” but that comment immediately led back into the importance of “beautiful” construction work and how nice the White House looks these days, according to his good friend Xi Jinping.
It was like watching a dark comedic take on Death of a Salesman.
Pale and hoarse, the president wheeled out Interior Secretary Doug Burgum (again, he was there at the pool, too!), who announced that “the last beam is going up” and “that’s what we’re here to celebrate,” as if nothing else of note had happened in the past 24 hours, before adding, “Let’s hear it for the American workers here today!”
Trump then asked the primary contractor on the construction to also come up and say a few words. The contractor, clearly on-edge, managed 10 seconds about how the final beam was here before handing the microphone back and scampering.
“They mentioned a little bit during the campaign: Why does Trump spend so much time on the White House?” said the president, starting up again. “Well, first of all it’s very little time and second of all, I like it, it’s good. For me it’s relaxing… I love construction.”
For once, he seemed completely genuine. Here was an old man retreating into his glory days, seemingly completely unbothered by being resoundingly lame-ducked by voters from coast to coast, and in fact perhaps relieved that he was entering an effective retirement. He started to talk about the moldings on the windows being broken. “It bothered me very much because that’s what I do,” he said. “I like beautiful things.”
He went into the details of the facade, the exterior plaster, the cracks in the glass. “You know, when I get criticized, like ‘Why are you working on the White House?’ I'm doing it because the White House is the ultimate symbol of America,” he added. And then we went right back into it: intricate fiberglass molds, stones with big holes in them. The mic repeatedly screeched feedback as he moved it too close to his mouth, again and again. “Great job,” he told the assembled workers. “We’ll see you all at the official opening — you’re all invited.”
It was like he was acting out a part he played in New York 30 years ago, blissfully unaware that decades had passed. He signed the beam with a marker, then directed Burgum to sign it, too, all the while acting as though he hadn’t just effectively burned down an entire party and political movement in service to his egotistical whims.
His VP was panicking and strategizing; his own son was endorsing JD Vance’s dark assessments of the situation. But the president was signing a beam, and he was asking the gathered reporters if they knew that some construction workers know how to walk across a beam without falling because they have excellent balance, and he didn’t seem to even be vaguely cognizant of the fact that those reporters might have more pressing questions to ask.
Briefly, he opened up for questions: Vance said the Iran war was why they got wiped out in the midterms, asked one reporter. Does he agree? “I think it’s largely true because it drove the gasoline up short-term,” Trump mused, completely unbothered, before adding that he’d “do it again”. Was it worth it, the reporter pressed? Yes, he said, without much conviction, because “you can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon”. Anyway, it was “not the war” that caused the midterms disaster, it was “the price,” which does seem a little like splitting hairs. Needless to say, this also revealed that he did actually see a direct line between his own policies and the results — despite the fact that, seconds later, he wheeled out his favorite phrase of the campaign: “If I were on the ballot, we would’ve won.”
“Look, there was such love at those rallies. It was incredible, and weren’t able to transfer the love to the candidates,” he added, with an almost philosophical air. Someone asked if he regretted his strange speech at the Reflecting Pool just before polls opened. “That was not a speech,” he said, slowly. “That was just talking about the Reflecting Pool and some other comments.” It appeared he didn’t see any issue at all with the fact that he’d announced an event on the eve of the midterms then spent most of that event talking about how granite is a “million-year stone”.
“Our country is now more successful than any time in its history,” the president concluded. “Watch the beam go up.” It was big “now, watch this drive” energy, for those who still remember the days of George W. Bush. And everyone stood back to watch a metal beam with a flag attached being slowly raised in the air. “It’s bigger than you thought, right?” Trump joked with the reporters at the front, who were still desperate to ask about the big political event of the day.
Journalists made a couple more valiant attempts to get coherent answers out of the president, but he seemed genuinely irritated every time his train of thought on construction work was interrupted with something political. How does he feel about Vance’s tweet? “It’s fine, it’s good.” Has he been talking to Vance about 2028? “I’ve been talking to a lot of people.” Will he replace Pete Hegseth? No — but also, “do you wanna see the helipad? Bring the cameras over,” and then he made everyone trail after him with their cameras and booms and mics and equipment so they could film the new helipad on the grass outside the White House near the ballroom.
Fox News noted that “this was an interesting thing for the president to do,” and underneath their feed, the comments came rolling in: “We had it all and he threw it away for a war he said would never happen,” wrote one commenter. “I could give a f*** less about monuments, I want the wall that you promised us, I want the level of deportations that you promised us and I want no new wars like you promised us, not even to mention the economy and cost of living,” wrote another. A third summarized the general feeling with a simpler question: “wtf do they need a ballroom for????”
What, indeed? Perhaps for the last dance of the Trump administration. Perhaps to give Donald something to focus on. Because today, he looked completely done with politics, whether or not he has to continue on as president for the next two years.
He likes beautiful things, he wants to dine out in DC, and he’s into caulking and moldings. He should’ve perhaps raided his wife’s wardrobe and come out wearing the jacket she was pictured wearing outside an immigration detention center back in 2018, the one that infamously declared “I really don’t care, do u?”
To paraphrase JD’s earlier tweet, at least that would’ve been honest.
