Last month I (kinda but not really) joked that Trump Derangement Syndrome had gotten so severe within the Democrat Party that by 2028, candidates will likely campaign on demolishing the new White House ballroom, effectively making a litmus test for any Democrat candidate who wants to be a contender. It was one of those moments I was kind of exaggerating, but there was a heck of a lot of truth behind it.
I guess I can say I told you so.
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) made it quite clear this week that my prediction was spot on. Responding to former Rep. Adam Kinzinger's (RINO-Ill.) post on X predicting the new triumphal arch near the White House "is gonna be knocked the F down immediately upon a new president," Lieu didn't just agree. He also predicted it would be a litmus test for the entire Democrat field.
My prediction: No Democrat running for President will win the primary or general election without first committing to restore the White House, Kennedy Center and Washington, DC to pre-trump.
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) September 6, 2026
And promising to do so with fireworks and music would poll well with voters. https://t.co/RJvHRiyQ9c
And he knows his caucus better than I do, so I think you can take his prediction seriously. On top of that, Lieu's prediction lands right after Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) argued that President Donald Trump’s tearing down the East Wing to make room for the ballroom was an impeachable offense. "Impeachment is not a taboo with us. It's not a fetish with us. We understand it's not a panacea we will not hesitate to use it, if we need to use it," Raskin said. "I would say even just bulldozing the East Wing of the White House, if you can bulldoze the East Wing, he can bulldoze the West Wing. He believes that he is a king."
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All this posturing over the ballroom is, of course, stupid.
For years there was bipartisan agreement that the White House needed a real ballroom. State dinners had taken place in tents, with portable toilets for guests, including foreign dignitaries. That indignity didn't bother anybody on the left. The only thing Democrats actually object to now is that Trump is the one who finally did something about it.
The outrage was never justified. Presidents have been knocking down and building up parts of the White House for well over a century, and nobody called it tyranny until now. Franklin D. Roosevelt installed an indoor pool and expanded both wings. Harry Truman gutted and rebuilt the entire interior in 1948. Richard Nixon added a press briefing room and, of all things, a bowling alley. Theodore Roosevelt built the West Wing in 1902. William Howard Taft added the Oval Office in 1909.
Barack Obama's administration spent roughly $375 million on a two-year renovation that, among other things, converted the White House tennis court into a basketball court. Nobody in the Democrat Party accused Obama of believing he was a king for that one.
It’s funny how that works, isn’t it?
Of course, as much as I believe Democrats will run on demolishing the ballroom, and the arch, and whatever else Trump touches, I doubt they'll follow through. Talk is cheap; a Democrat may get donations from the base promising to demolish the ballroom, but actually knocking down a big, beautiful ballroom would be unbelievably stupid.
And this almost makes it worse. If Democrats really do campaign in 2028 on demolishing the ballroom and undoing other Trump projects done to make D.C. better, it won't matter whether they ever fire up a wrecking ball. A party that treats demolishing anything Trump fixes as a rallying cry is a party too far gone to be taken seriously.
