\u201cYou probably hear the beautiful sound of construction to the back. You hear that sound? Oh, that\u2019s music to my ears. I love that sound.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump, who made his fortune in construction, added: \u201cWhen I hear that sound it reminds me of money. In this case it reminds of lack of money because I\u2019m paying for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The US President has said that he is partly funding work on the giant ballroom while private and corporate donors will cover the rest.<\/p>\n
Last week, Trump hosted a glitzy dinner for donors with guests including several top US tech firms, but the White House has not released a list yet or given any figures.<\/p>\n
\u2018Clutching their pearls\u2019<\/p>\n
The White House rejected what it called \u201cpearl-clutching\u201d from critics.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the latest instance of manufactured outrage, unhinged leftists and their fake news allies are clutching their pearls over President Donald J. Trump\u2019s visionary addition of a grand, privately funded ballroom to the White House,\u201d it said. <\/p>\n
It called the ballroom a \u201ca bold, necessary addition that echoes the storied history of improvements and renovations from commanders-in-chief to keep the executive residence as a beacon of American excellence\u201d.<\/p>\n
The White House also pointed out work done by previous presidents \u2013 including what it said was President Barack Obama upgrading the tennis court into a full basketball court.<\/p>\n
Trump has launched a major makeover of the White House in his second term, including paving over the Rose Garden where he hosted the Republican senators.<\/p>\n
Democrats lashed out at Trump over the demolition work, comparing it to his own radical efforts to reshape the federal Government and target his political opponents.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe demolition of the East Wing feels very symbolic of what Trump is doing to our democracy,\u201d Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono said on X. \u201cHe\u2019ll lie about protecting it, then destroy it right in front of your face.\u201d<\/p>\n
Senior Senator Elizabeth Warren said that while Americans faced a \u201cskyrocketing\u201d cost of living, \u201cDonald Trump can\u2019t hear you over the sound of bulldozers demolishing a wing of the White House to build a new grand ballroom\u201d.<\/p>\n
– Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cYou probably hear the beautiful sound of construction to the back. You hear that sound? Oh, that\u2019s music…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[806,70275,11154,70276,3269,1568,3054,3039,31390,2178,51293,42,10053,157,117,43,90,1523,5202,2572,2687,26660,40,38,41,39,2179,16550,4576],"class_list":["post-94705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-as","tag-ballroom","tag-begins","tag-brushed","tag-build","tag-construction","tag-criticism","tag-defends","tag-demolition","tag-donald","tag-ears","tag-headlines","tag-house","tag-music","tag-new","tag-news","tag-on","tag-over","tag-part","tag-president","tag-saying","tag-sound","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-trump","tag-white","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}