By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
OCT. 28, 2025 | With all that our nation has gone through in the Trump years, the most directly chilling to me has been his demolition of the East Wing of the White House to build a $300 million, 90,000 square foot ballroom. Perhaps it was seeing giant excavators tearing into this beautiful historic landmark the in-your-face destruction of what Americans considered our nation’s house.
It hit us hard. It was jarring to see the classic walls crumble into a pile of debris — concrete, wood, steel and wires. And with it, there went part of our nation’s history, stretching from George Washington commissioning the White House, to reconstruction after the British burned it in the War of 1812, to Harry Truman’s restoration.
Granted, President Trump is doing his best to destroy an even bigger element, our nation’s democracy, with his many executive orders and pronouncements that defame the rule of law. Yes, it is all so sad, as nearly the entire nation, and especially those elected officials who could rein Trump in, do nothing.
Primarily, the Do-Nothings in the Congress are Republicans, who hold the majority in both chambers. They could curtail some of the Trump moves if they would find a little courage and challenge him for these wrongs. But instead they look out only for themselves, fearing Trump will fund a challenger against them in the next election, if they don’t bow and scrape to him. This species is plentiful.
Meanwhile, in all of the hullabaloo, Trump slams the country into another useless government shutdown, hurting many of our national workers from getting paid, scaring people about health care and food assistance. These things don’t bother Trump one bit. He has never faced hardships.
Instead, he hops Air Force One for another grandstanding overseas trip, seeking to solve all the world’s problems according to his selfish methods, which so far haven’t worked. He never considers the common man and his problems, often caused by Trump’s own pomposity and his constant misunderstanding of the way the world works. After all, he’s never walked in the average guy’s shoes, and cannot understand that person’s daily problems.
Eventually, we feel that somehow, somewhere, someone or some group will come to their senses and stand up to Trump, and bring our nation back to its center.
Meanwhile, the terrible junk heap we see now on the White House grounds, which was once the East Wing of the White House, stands as a crumbled symbol of all our nation has lost under Donald Trump.
“But we got private money to pay for it,” Trump will claim, as if that is the only problem. But look at the time-honored heritage we lost.
You might be interested in who funded this new monstrosity at the presidential mansion.The White House on October 23 released a list of those donating to Trump’s ballroom that he intends will replace the now-demolished East Wing of the White House. The list includes the Altria Group Inc., Amazon, Apple, Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., Caterpillar Inc., Coinbase, Comcast Corporation, J. Pepe and Emilia Fanjul, Hard Rock International, Google, HP Inc., Lockheed Martin, Meta Platforms, Micron Technology, Microsoft, NextEra Energy Inc., Palantir Technologies Inc., Ripple, Reynolds American, T-Mobile, Tether America, Union Pacific Railroad, Adelson Family Foundation, Stefan E. Brodie, Betty Wold Johnson Foundation, Charles and Marissa Cascarilla, Edward and Shari Glazer, Harold Hamm, Benjamin Leon Jr., The Lutnick Family, The Laura & Isaac Perlmutter Foundation, Stephen A. Schwarzman, Konstantin Sokolov, Kelly Loeffler and Jeff Sprecher, Paolo Tiramani, Cameron Winklevoss, and Tyler Winklevoss.
These people and companies may be donors to this Trump defacing of the White House. But to us, they are not our nation’s heroes, but mere toads to Donald Trump. This demolition is chilling and heart-breaking!
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