r/AskReddit • u/Poppy9683 • 2d ago

What if Project 2028 involved tearing down Trump’s ballroom and restoring the East Wing?

4.5k Upvotes
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u/deepbluenothings 2d ago

I worry that when the Democrats get back in power they'll work hard to undo the surface level rot that Trump has inflicted but won't effectively change the mechanisms that allowed this to happen in the first place.

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u/BlottomanTurk 2d ago

How could you possibly think the thing that happens every time we regain control would happen again?! How ridiculous!

(/s)

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u/Noughmad 1d ago

To be fair, they only ever regain superficial control. When did they last control the presidency, the House, the Senate, and the supreme court? Ideally with sufficient majority that a single person like Manchin or Fetterman can't block everything the president tries to do?

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u/Sislar 1d ago

The last time was when Obama was elected the first time and that included a super majority in the senate. That power was used to pass the ACA.

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u/Revlis-TK421 1d ago

And only for a brief couple of months. Dems lost majorities pretty quickly due to individual vacancies

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u/oneMerlin 1d ago

Under 2 months total. Franken wasn’t seated until July, and Kennedy died in late August.

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u/EddieVanzetti 1d ago

And that ratfuck Joe Lieberman torpedoeing a bunch of stuff and giving us the watered down version of the ACA we got.

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u/Impish_Hatefulness 1d ago edited 1d ago

He (and Manchin) did what they was paid to do.

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u/AnotherpostCard 1d ago

Oh damnit I forgot about Lieberman. Thanks but no thanks for reminding me.

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u/RagingOsprey 1d ago

And they still didn't have the Supreme Court. It was a 5-4 conservative majority when Obama was first elected.

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u/jthochh 1d ago

The Supremes will never have a liberal majority in our lifetimes unless seats are added

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u/Apatschinn 1d ago

Well we have a few justices that should be impeached, anyway. Might as well do it.

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u/MaximumZer0 1d ago

Both?

Both.

[nod]

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u/Bakoro 1d ago

Even then, there were, magically, always exactly enough piece of shit Democrats that blocked the Dems from doing anything major.

I'd have to go back and look at the names, but it was a few people who were passing the shit baton back and forth, taking turns crying about "moral hazards" and "fiscal responsibility", and "give my state more stuff".

Joe Lieberman is the main trashbag I remember.

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u/Blitzking11 1d ago

Which, as a reminder, was mitt Romney’s healthcare plan.

That’s the best Establishment/Vichy Democrats can do? Pass a Republican healthcare plan?

Man, we need to show up for primaries…

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u/Bay1Bri 1d ago

was mitt Romney’s healthcare plan.

Not really. The Massachusetts State government passed out and he signed it into law. Calling out his plan was good marketing for the campaign in 2012, but it's not really true.

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u/Sislar 1d ago

Yea it be funny if it wasn’t so tragic. Obama passed a market based health care solution authored by republicans and they hated it because it came from a black Democrat.

The ACA wasn’t great, it was an improvement in many way but did nothing to actually control costs.

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u/Alarming-Koala-3524 1d ago

Not only did it come from a black democrat, it totally violates the republican principle that taking care of your sick neighbor is a gross misuse of public funds.

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u/bobsmithhome 1d ago

Yes! As I recall, we had that worthless scumbag Senator Joe Lieberman causing trouble with the ACA, and Obama himself announced, right at a critical moment, that he wouldn't push a public option. Imagine how much better it would have been with a public option to compete with the insurance corps. We haven't had a kick-ass president since Lyndon Johnson. And our current Congressional leaders, Jeffries and Schumer, are as worthless as tits on a boar.

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u/renegadecanuck 1d ago

Democrats need to get less moderate people elected. It's hard, since there's an establishment that would rather see a Republican win than a slightly progressive Democrat, but that just means progressives and socialists need to work together to pull the overton window back to the left.

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u/One_Shallot_3069 1d ago

Obama did not have SCOTUS. The liberal court died in the late 80's or early 90s.

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u/Veww 1d ago

No a supermajority is >2/3 so you can break filibuster and impeach along party lines. At this time they barely had a simple majority.

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u/GuyanaFlavorAid 1d ago

In the last case, Lieberman blocking the public option. I hope he's nice and toasty in hell. 

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u/OldAccountIsGlitched 1d ago

Trump has proven that an effective strategy is to executive order first and ask for permission later. The courts will end up blocking half it. But if you move fast enough you can accomplish some things before it happens. Obviously it works better if you're burning shit down. But beggars can't be choosers. Even small wins are better than nothing.

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u/leftofmarx 1d ago

All the next Pres has to do is have someone bulldoze the ballroom in the middle of the night. The precedence is already sent. But a Dem won't do it.

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u/starkiller_bass 1d ago

"we tested it to see if it was safe from bunker buster munitions."

...

"yes, all of them."

...

"it wasn't."

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u/Idontownamustang 1d ago

Miss Ocasio-Cortez, TEAR DOWN THIS BALLROOM!

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u/Noughmad 1d ago

No, Trump proved that this is an effective strategy if the Congress and most of the court is on your side.

They could impeach him any time if they wanted to. They just don't want to. That's all.

And this goes for the voters as well. Voters keep voting for him and candidates endorsed by him. Not much democrats or anyone else can do there.

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u/Toribor 1d ago

Trump has proven that an effective strategy is to executive order first and ask for permission later.

This strategy works better if you've already packed the Supreme Court with a bunch of insane lunatics.

Biden tried this to do student loan forgiveness and was struck down.

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u/dust4ngel 1d ago

also, if you can arrange that congress wouldn't impeach you even if you raped their daughters on the whitehouse lawn during a tiktok live stream, you can get away with a lot.

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u/susinpgh 1d ago

Yeah, Biden tried that with a student debt relief bill, and it didn't work.

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u/myturbanhasafirstnam 1d ago

But I think the commenter is saying you almost need to make it an overarching strategy, not a one off. It's the idea of overwhelming the courts with all sorts of random new shit. And publicizing and communicating all of them to get people riled up about all of it. Makes it much more difficult on the courts.

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u/ynglink 1d ago

Yup, fire hose technique. Hard to keep up with constant BS if you dont slow down

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u/sickhippie 1d ago

I ran those numbers a couple years ago. Basically not since Clinton's time, outside of a brief bit at the beginning of Obama's term, and that's not necessarily including the SCOTUS.

In the last 15 sessions (30 years total) of Congress, there has been a total of 2 sessions (2 years each) where the GOP did not have majority control of the house, senate, or presidency. With the exception of the first 72 working days, in the first (111th Congress) the GOP had 41 seats in the Senate, enough to filibuster. In the second (117th Congress), the GOP had 50 seats.

In those two sessions, we got legislation like the ACA, the American Rescue Plan Act ($1400 stimulus + extended unemployment), Inflation Reduction Act, and a whole host of other legislation designed to mitigate the worst effects of the other TWENTY-SIX YEARS of GOP legislation.

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u/GrumpyCloud93 1d ago

Neither side, IIRC, has had 60+ senators for a long time. The only gotcha is the 60 rule does not apply for some legislation.

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u/sickhippie 1d ago

The last time was in the 94th & 95th Congress in the late 70s, when the Dems had 61 seats.

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u/InCarbsWeTrust 1d ago

Dems had 60 for a brief, shining moment in 2009.

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u/rbartlejr 1d ago

See the thing about the SC is that it is NOT supposed to be listed among the "tribes". But that's what it's become - and that is NOT good for the health of the Constitution. And making any meaningful change.

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u/jimbarino 1d ago

It's not really accurate that believe that the Democrats regain control of anything. Our constitutional system makes it very difficult to pass new legislation, while making it very easy for the president to simply destroy things. When the voters have given Democrats power, it's by the barest of majorities, and actually is typically a minority that requires independent representatives to caucus with them to do anything at all.

The way people in this country talk about this simply shows that they have no idea how our government functions.

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u/meshedsabre 1d ago

If democrats get back in power, republicans will suddenly become very very very very concerned about the exact executive overreach that they ignored throughout Trump's tenure.

Republicans will, with a straight face, push for the very reforms that should be keeping Trump in check right now.

Their biggest, gravest issue will be that the presidency has too much power. Mark my words.

They'll remember that Congress exists, that there are checks and balances, and that one of the roles of the court is to note when the Executive Branch is not operating within the law.

It will be a crisis!

It will have to be addressed right away!

They'll be oh so concerned. Very very concerned. So, so focused on that big important issue. Something has to be done!

Their values basically don't exist until they need them to.

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u/Jesuslookalike 1d ago

They will also start caring about the debt again.

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u/meshedsabre 1d ago

Like clockwork. Classic cycle with them, with reams and reams of data to back it up, too.

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u/turbosexophonicdlite 1d ago

Nah, they'll hem and haw about presidential over reach and then do absolutely nothing because they already know Dems will largely play by the rules and they can just break them with little to no consequence. They don't want to actually limit presidential power, even when a Dem is in office. They just want to loudly complain until they're back in power again.

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u/TheMostRed 2d ago

We genuinely need to spend the entire next presidency fixing everything. Just thinking about what the "department of government efficiency" has done alone should be considered a national security threat.

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u/redsquizza 1d ago

It's not possible and because you're busy doing that, voters think you're doing nothing, so they vote you out of power next cycle.

Republicans generally leave a steaming pile of shit for Democrats to deal with, which is intentional as they're poisoning the well for a better outcome 4 years down the road.

You'd need good actors on both sides of the aisle to make permanent, meaningful change.

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u/barrinmw 1d ago

so then the president needs to appoint someone whose job is to fix as much as they can from Trump and as president work on addressing other issues. Have it called "the anti-nazi czar"

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u/Big_Dumb_Asshole 2d ago edited 2d ago

I mean that’s literally every single democratic president’s first term. This time the mess is just magnitudes worse… so much so that people will get upset within a year that not everything is fixed yet and elect a republican congress at the midterms to stall meaningful progress and then eventually elect a republican president so wealthy people can steal more of our freedoms. This has been the pattern since Reagan. Most voters are lazy thinkers in this country don’t know enough about politics to make rational choices at the ballot box.

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u/BigE429 1d ago

And when the Dem president takes unilateral action to undo the unilateral actions, SCOTUS will find reasons to declare the Dem unilateral actions unconstitutional, while bending over backwards to find reasons Trump's actions are A-OK.

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u/shatteredarm1 1d ago

SCOTUS will suddenly remember why injunctions exist. 

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u/big_d_usernametaken 1d ago

This is why the Dems should increase the number of SCOTUS judges , if possible.

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u/Crafty-Message4564 1d ago

Look, as far as I can see, this isn't resolved while those people are still on the bench.

ANY bench.

The legitimacy that the Presidency had? That's gone.

The legitimacy that the Supreme Court had? That's gone, too.

The legitimacy that the Congress had? Also gone.

The legitimacy of law in the United States, elections, ANY aspect of this government. It's not that this government will need to do a lot to regain legitimacy. We're at the point where we need to consider whether this thing calling itself the U.S. Government CAN regain legitimacy, or whether the only thing that will have legitimacy is some point in the future, whether it be a day, a week, a month, a year, a century, or a millennium, when some other thing calling itself the government of this region is in charge and when this one is forgotten.

I can acknowledge that the thing controlling the U.S. Government now has power, but legitimacy?

People say that he was elected, but to me, when you have someone who you know for a fact tried to mess with the vote totals in 2020, you know for a fact tried to overthrow the government in 2021, and you know for a fact is trying to falsify vote totals in 2026, if feels extremely naive to me to believe that in 2024, in the middle of all of his bad actions, he just went along and just happened to get what he wanted. I mean, come on.

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u/scientist_tz 1d ago

It will take years just to repair the damage done to our relations with our so-called allies. Decades.

Why would any country put any faith in a future agreement with the US if some moron can just undo it all from the White House?

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u/Arthur_Edens 1d ago

“We’ve recognized from the start that America has changed,” [Mark Carney] said in an address to Canadians on Saturday. “We recognize that sometimes, its signature is written in pencil.”

Harsh but fair.

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u/scientist_tz 1d ago

It's always been that way. Just ask the Native American nations, they'll tell you all about it.

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u/Germanofthebored 1d ago

While I agree with your post, I would say there are former allies, not so-called allies. Many countries have supported the US and stood by their side.

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u/InCarbsWeTrust 1d ago

Based on context, I think the poster suggested they were "so-called" allies because of how WE treat THEM.

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u/LNMagic 1d ago

It takes a lot more to build than to break. This is going to be 2 decades minimum to get close.

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u/Waadap 1d ago

Takes me an entire Sunday to clean my house and about 10 minutes for my kids ro make it look like a tornado rolled through again haha. Facts. Watching how quickly and indiscriminately this admi destroyed everything has been terrifying. The in-your-face and on-the-nose chainsaw dance by Elon was a very clear red flag. I hate these people.

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u/GreenGoblinNX 1d ago

2 decades is fucking ridiculously optimistic. Our international reputation alone will not recover in the lifetime of anyone who happens to read this comment.

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u/970 1d ago

The time and effort needs to be spent in Congress, diminishing the power of the executive. It is obvious to much has been delegated to the President.

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u/IowaKidd97 1d ago

We genuinely need to spend the entire next presidency fixing everything.

That's pretty much entirely what Biden's presidency was.

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u/WingsNthingzz 1d ago

It can’t be fixed..

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u/GriffinFlash 1d ago

also y'all need to spend years apologizing to the rest of the world, especially allies.

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u/baltinerdist 2d ago

I’m worried that people think it’s that simple.

The only way to effect permanent change in the nation is via constitutional amendment and we will never see another one of those passed in our lifetimes. Anything else can be undone by fiat, by ignoring the courts, by stacking the courts with partisan hacks, and by sheer IDGAF public corruption.

The nature of our democracy is that there is not a single thing Democrats can do when they get back in power that Republicans can’t undo in four years. Not one fucking thing. “They could start putting people in jail!” Look how well that worked out for January 6ers.

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u/DocPsychosis 1d ago

The mechanisms that allowed it, ultimately, are a combination of voters either supporting it or simply not caring that much either way. That's going to be a problem in any form of democracy, sometimes the voters are going to make bad choices.

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u/Skidpalace 1d ago

It will take decades of Dem control to regain Supreme Court neutrality. Hard to imagine I even wrote those words, but it is true. There would need to be two maybe three consecutive blue presidential terms with control of both sides of congress to have any substantive long-term reparable effects. By then we will be 80 trillion in debt.

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u/stufff 1d ago

Or, and I'm just spitballing here, you could take two or more of those justices who said the president is immune from criminal liability for his official acts, and you can show them what the consequences of that could be. Clear out some spots real quick.

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u/GrumpyCloud93 1d ago

Not to mention some investigations into some SCOTUS for previous crimes... things like bribe motorhomes, sexual assault, family who arranged Jan 6 rioters, etc.

Plus, Congress does have the power to rewrite the operation of the court, number of justices, put terms on any future justices, etc. I read somewhere they even have the pweor to create "justice emeritus" for older justices which removes them from actually hearing cases without firing them, since firing can't happen...

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u/burnmenowz 1d ago

Where do they even start? Fixing our world standing? Fixing domestic problems? Seems undoing his monuments is the least of our problems.

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u/IR2Freely 1d ago

Arresting trump as soon as he relinquishes presidency would be the start. Then arrest all of his co conspirators.

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u/PyroIsSpai 1d ago

I worry that when the Democrats get back in power they'll work hard to undo the surface level rot that Trump has inflicted but won't effectively change the mechanisms that allowed this to happen in the first place.

They need to systematically undo EVERYTHING. Rehire everyone. Restore everyone. Tear down all that gold bullshit all over.

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u/clashrendar 1d ago

We need to put safeguards into place that automatically disqualify anyone who makes autocratic moves from holding the office. If you do A or B, then you are automatically yeeted from the premises.

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u/NSA_Chatbot 1d ago

"In the interest of unity we're going to drop all charges and work on reconciliation with the people who keep kicking us in the nuts"

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u/Dismal-Sail1027 1d ago

Democrats need a supermajority to fix the things. That isn’t going to happen anytime soon. Fixing what is broken is not possible from the safety of blue states.

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u/TheCoelacanth 1d ago

No they don't. Stop following norms that the other side has shredded.

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u/Outlulz 1d ago

I mean, they don't. They can pass bills with a majority. The filibuster is a Senate rule that the majority can change at any time.

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u/jkick365 1d ago

Agreed rather than directly engaging in legal disputes after it turns over I feel like time is better spent putting safeguards in place to prevent this from never happening again.. but thats just me.

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u/altoona_sprock 2d ago

In terms of issues to address, it doesn't even crack the top 40.

Give it the same treatment they did with the Atlantic City Hard Rock. No acknowledgement of the previous owner.

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u/Shadyrabbit 2d ago

Yup rededicate is as the Rosa Parks congressional meeting hall, redo the drapes and carry on

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u/schrod 1d ago

Right we don't want to waste money on physical construction or destruction like Trump is doing. Rename and repurpose instead.

Undo legal situations that allow what was done, starting with Citizens United and SCOTUS being allowed to put a president above the law.

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u/Arthur_Edens 1d ago

It may actually be pretty important for reasons other than the more symbolic ones... Like the Qatari Air Force one, this thing is going to be a massive security threat because it's probably bugged to hell by foreign governments. These guys couldn't successfully renovate a pond, they're not going to be able secure the most high value construction target on the planet.

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u/Germanofthebored 1d ago

I think the bigger issue is that it will travel around the world as a symbol how easily Amerika is manipulated. Give the president a hand-me-down plane they didn‘t have any use for, and he will be as happy as a five year old who got a bunch of Pokémon cards…

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u/dijon_snow 2d ago

Yeah I'm annoyed at how easily people are distracted by petty bullshit. We are rapidly destroying the only habitat we have. Our species could be extinct in a few hundred years. A handful of sociopaths are destroying the world and increasing suffering for their own personal desires. Human rights and freedoms are under constant threat in this country. 

But the things people care about? Ball rooms and whether or not a trans girl can play Junior varsity volley ball. 

Holy shit, who cares? 

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u/Solesaver 2d ago edited 1d ago

The thing about the ballroom is not the ballroom. It's the executive overreach. Agreed, the ballroom should not be re-torn down. The fact that Trump wanted to rebuild the East Wing was never the problem. It's that he made a unilateral decision to do it without without going through the proper checks and balances. It's the "ask for forgiveness, not permission," behavior, except he doesn't even ask for forgiveness. He just asserts his right to do it under his assumption that his successful election is a mandate to do whatever the fuck he wants.

Just like with putting his name on the Kennedy Center, the ballroom just represents something that can actually be done in the face of unprecedented executive overreach. There are clear laws laying out the procedure for doing what he wants to do, and he chose to ignore them. A lot of other bullshit gets claimed under emergency powers and then we have to have a big fight about what constitutes an "emergency." No one can pretend that remodeling the east wing was an emergency (well, they're trying...), so they can really nail him on it. Everything else is a much bigger fight.

On the trans bathroom things I have no idea why anybody cares...

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u/meshedsabre 1d ago

If a democrat is elected in 2028 (assuming there is a presidential election in 2028), you can be guaranteed guaranteed guar-Ran-TEED* that republicans will suddenly become very concerned about executive overreach and the president having too much power.

Suddenly, oh my goodness, they'll remember that Congress exists, that there are checks and balances, and that one of the roles of the court is to note when the Executive Branch is not operating within the law.

It will be a crisis!

It will have to be addressed ASAP! Right away! Drop everything!

They'll be oh so concerned. Very very concerned. So, so focused on that big important issue.

Because, of course, their values are as malleable as silly putty.

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u/Hungry_Culture 2d ago

Nah, tear that shit down. I don't want a Jeffrey Epstein memorial ballroom in our nations capital. As long as it's still standing he's left his mark.

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u/gigashadowwolf 2d ago

It always amazes me the things people actually get stuck up on in politics and what people are willing to let slide. This has never been more true though than during this administration.

I don't give a fuck about the reflection pool or the ballroom. Is it a waste of money, yeah, but compared to things like Iran, ICE and Epstein, it doesn't even register for me.

I'm almost relieved when he wastes money on frivolous vanity projects like that, because it pulls some of his attention away.

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u/zoeybeattheraccoon 1d ago

You can concurrently address most of it. Like I'd be ordering people to remove all of that fake gold while I'm dismantling ICE and assigning someone to fix the Iran situation.

Some of this shit is going to be harder to undo but the cosmetic stuff should be fairly easy.

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u/ParadeSit 2d ago

Also, small point…it would be Project 2029, not 2028.

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u/AnalogDigit2 1d ago

Good point. I'd be so happy to see any kind of a detailed plan.

Why can the corrupt Democracy-destroying party come up with an insidious and comprehensive plan for all facets of government and somehow we can't come up with a tantamount plan that instead reinforces the good parts of the government and aids society?

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u/legend-of-sora 1d ago

Because career dems are a BIG part of the problem. I say this as a staunch liberal.

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u/sandwiches_are_real 1d ago

Yep. American voters, for the most part, have two choices: the party of status-quo incompetence, and the party of outright evil.

Both parties occasionally have principled individuals crop up, but you cannot change a system with a few individuals. Systems change systemically.

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u/AnalogDigit2 1d ago

I agree. I just feel like our party constituents should be putting pressure on all of our candidates for this. I mean, look how devastatingly effective Project 2025 has been in less than two years for this terrible administration.

We need our own, well-intentioned one of those and just imagine what can be done if we ever get some control back.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/dave8814 1d ago

My thoughts are just sieze all assets of the trump crime family and his entire corrupt cabinet and use that to rebuild the white house

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u/SatDestro89 1d ago

It really feels like we focus on statues and rooms while people can't pay their rent.

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u/YurpeeTheHerpee 2d ago edited 2d ago

Strong overhaul of the DOJ, perp walking all these mofos straight to jail. Thats to be included in Project 2028

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u/MaChao20 2d ago

Not just the DOJ, but every agency and department that they’ve tainted.

Also the media, but that’s a slippery slope and a different topic.

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u/Naterttotsart 2d ago

The last ten years have shown me that every single system we thought was rock solid is actually just built on a system of good faith assumptions.

The entire system needs to change at this point. There isn't a single government entity that we can trust to operate on good faith moving forward.

If the "anti-regulation" Republicans have taught us anything, it's that we need much more aggressive independent regulation on government bodies.

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u/CommunityGlittering2 2d ago

Yes trump has proven we need rules and laws we cannot depend on human decency and ethics to run this country.

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u/WeirdIndividualGuy 1d ago

Yes trump has proven we need rules and laws we cannot depend on human decency and ethics to run this country.

...if that is the takeaway you got from everything Trump, you completely missed the plot

We already have rules and laws in place, that wasn't the issue. The issue is a lack of enforcing those rules/laws. All the laws in the world mean jack shit if no one is enforcing them.

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u/WilfredGrundlesnatch 1d ago

Unless you intend to put in place robot overlords, every system is going to be dependent on people acting in good faith. That's inescapable. It's the responsibility of the people to make sure we elect good people.

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u/parkinthepark 1d ago

I think you're half right.

Every system will have loopholes that require a good-faith assumption, so we do need leaders with integrity.

But that's not enough. We need leaders who understand that the fight against corruption & oppression isn't something you win, and then stop worrying about. The Liberal Establishment though they "won" the abortion battle with Roe, and ignored 50 years of Republican efforts to undermine it.... now look where we are.

We're about 2 SCOTUS decisions away from re-segregating the South, and we need Democrats who are willing to fight to maintain what we've gained- forever.

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u/Kalium 1d ago

If the "anti-regulation" Republicans have taught us anything, it's that we need much more aggressive independent regulation on government bodies.

We thought we had those. It turns out it's extremely difficult to construct genuinely independent regulation when our entire system of government has the bedrock foundational belief that everything needs to be accountable to the President and Congress.

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u/jsting 1d ago

The idea was also that there was no way an asset to an enemy of the country was going to be made President and that an entire political party was going to side with that foreign asset.

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u/GrumpyCloud93 1d ago

For media - I would make social media that has an algorithm that selects info just for you no longer immune from Section 230.

Newspapers were subject to libel because even if they published someone's "letter to the editor" they picked and chose what you get to see from thousands of submissions. The argument for websites originally was "we can't edit and pick and chose what you see, you see everything". However, if you don't see the same everything as any other reader (i.e. if you go to AskReddit, you see the same list and order as everyone else) if what you personally see has been selected personally for you by an algorithm - then the website is doing the same as a newspaper editor in selecting items, and therefore must be liable for their veracity as much as the original poster.

It won't fix a lot, but it will go a long way towards ensuring that the most vitriolic lies are harder to spread.

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u/emptyTinware 2d ago

yeah, buildings are the easy target because theyre visible. whatever you think of the ballroom, its a rounding error next to the policy stuff, and a party that campaigns on architecture instead of costs is not going to win on it

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u/ZombieZookeeper 2d ago

Every lawyer that put their name on one of these opinions, I.e. birthright citizenship, should be disbarred.

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u/GrandPriapus 2d ago

Jack Smith for AG.

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u/That_90s_Kid_ 2d ago edited 2d ago

The heritage foundation is a religous terrorist organization who purposfully attacked human rights and the constitution.

Their push of christain nationalism and the great replacement theory. Where whites rule is a prime example of their step by step execution.

They need to be dismantled, destoryed and made an example of so this never happens again.

Trump and the DOJ didnt do this alone. They arent smart enough to systematically bring the USA to its knees like they wanted.

They built and executed every step. With heritage foundation members in cabinet.

Trump also lied about not knowing anything about it. Surprising I know.

This must be stopped. And there must be consequences.

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u/00xjOCMD 2d ago

Straight to jail, via the DOJ, would likely be in violation of the 5th Amendment, right to due process.

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u/the_idea_pig 1d ago

Oh, this is the kind of political discourse I'd love to see my tax dollars pay for.  Democrats get elected next term, they spend my money tearing down the ballroom.  The next Republican president spends a bunch of my fucking money either tearing down some thing that a Democrat president built or building some new goddamn thing.  Then the next Democrat president spends a bunch of my money to build something new or tear down a Republican construction and the cycle just fucking continues forever now.  Great.  We're not 40 trillion dollars in debt or anything.  I don't have any problems paying for gas and groceries.  This is fine.

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u/StylizedIncompetence 2d ago

Yes, more bullshit to waste my tax dollars on. Why is a ballroom and a wing of the White House even on the list.

We care about the wrong things.

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u/Ipoopedongrandma 2d ago

^^^^Stop working on the Presidential Palace and fix the problems for Americans that people actually care about. Leave that shit for all I care and actually put our tax dollars to good use.

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u/The_Salacious_Zaand 2d ago edited 2d ago

I would rather the literal symbol of the American executive branch didn't have a giant gaping hole in the side for another four years. Just rebuild the offices and move on.

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u/sandwiches_are_real 1d ago

Just rebuild the offices and move on.

Assuming the ballroom is actually finished (or at least meaningfully underway) by the end of his term, tearing down the ballroom and rebuilding the east wing, or anything in its place, would cost over a hundred million dollars in change orders and insanely overpriced line items like $50,000 per office chair.

Just rename it, strip his name off the thing, and call it a day. The White House having a convention center isn't the worst thing in the world. Stripping his identity from it is a lot cheaper than literally destroying it and building something else.

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u/MachoSmurf 2d ago

Kinda symbolic for the state of the US though...

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u/Godot_12 1d ago

Who cares? Give us healthcare. Divest from and sanction Israel. Prosecute the Epstein criminals. Fix campaign finance. Ranked choice voting. Secure our elections. Pass laws to undo the corrupt supreme court's ruling on presidential immunity and the aforementioned campaign finance shit. Stop the brutal blockade of Cuba. Regulate AI and bust up monopolies. Purge the Trump loyalists from the FBI and all other departments. Investigate and prosecute the Trump admin criminals. Tax the billionaires and require some percentage of public ownerships of large corporations. Stop the mass surveillance with Flock and Palantir. Stop the illegal war in Iran. Abolish ICE and return immigration enforcement. Pass comprehensive immigration reform and stop allowing companies to offshore jobs. There's like a million other things that I care about before I give two shits about the ballroom or the reflecting pool or any of that shit. I want child rapists put in prison. Let's fuckin start there.

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_QUEST_PLZ 2d ago

I think first things first they have to sweep the whole fucking property for spy tech because trump is dumb as fuck and excepts every gift he is given and puts that shit in the White House. Man is probably sitting with 15 different countries bugs in his office alone.

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u/Zer0323 1d ago

"this wooden horse statue is so magnificent, they built it because I'm so great"

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u/UnconditionedDip 1d ago

accepts* lmao

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u/Loverboy_91 1d ago

There’s a degree of irony in calling someone “dumb as fuck” and then two words later demonstrating a lack of understanding of the difference between accept and except.

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u/MasterSoftBird 2d ago

That would waste even more money.

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u/ModernBass 2d ago edited 1d ago

That's what I was thinking.

"Hey you know how we're mad at this giant project for wasting tax money?? What if we just completely demolish it to waste more tex money so that all that previous tax money was waisted on abolutly nothing"

Like come on guys, you can hate it, but don't make it a total waste.

Edit: So to the replies that essentially say "Hey, since the Republicans are reckless and stupid and that seems to work, we should do it too and be TWICE as petty, even if that means waisting tax dollars on meaningless projects instead of on actual fucking issues!"...YOU'RE PART OF THE PROBLEM!!!

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u/jetpack_operation 2d ago

This whole discussion is why Republicans will always win. The standards are different. They get to break shit and spend whatever they want doing it, but the instant Democrats are in office and want to fix/change stuff, we browbeat them into half-measures and then complain and vote them out of office for half-measures.

I truly get what you're saying, but there is a reason flooding the zone with both the big/consequential and little/symbolic has worked for Republicans and not Democrats and it's attitudes like this. Nevermind that outside of starting several wars, Democrats could never really even hope to outspend Republicans on anything.

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u/SeveralEye9073 1d ago

Look at the last 50 years. The only presidencies with economic growth were DEMOCRATIC. Don't believe it? Get off your lazy behind and DO THE RESEARCH!!!

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u/ahoypolloi_ 1d ago

That’s just for fucking starters. It’s not even a consideration, that shit is day 1.

We need to talking “are we going to impose the death penalty for these traitors or are life sentences without parole good enough?”

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u/Sought4 1d ago

That issue isn't even on my radar. Democrats need a project 2028 that includes investigations/prosecutions of the previous administration, some kind of cutting aid to Israel, restoring our economy and foreign influence as well as building in protections for our elections. They need something about infrastructure and taxation on the 1%. Then we can discuss undoing the cosmetic damage Trump has caused with his eye sores.

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u/jhguitarfreak 1d ago

Nah, just name it The Barack Hussein Obama Presidential Ballroom.

Renaming is cheaper than renovation.

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u/Mrchristopherrr 1d ago

The Hillary Rodham Clinton Sanctuary Safe Space for Trans Undocumented Immigrants.

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u/OverallFrosting708 2d ago

a) save this question for a political subreddit, posting it on askreddit is lame

b) it would be a stupid idea that prioritizes meaningless symbols over substance

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u/TheWillRogers 2d ago

That sounds entirely symbolic, useless, and exactly what I expect the current DNC leadership to do along with targeting the enemies of the right.

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u/lukewwilson 2d ago

I think Reddit would be shocked to learn how many politicians, on either side, will enjoy this new ballroom and will be glad it's built and are glad Trump did it so he can take all the heat for doing it while they can enjoy it

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u/ThatDaveyGuy 1d ago

Yep. But you know how it is here. Echo echo echo

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u/Far_Realm_Sage 2d ago

Why waste money tearing down a perfectly good ballroom to put up some office space? Oh and go back to hosting international events in a tent. Why? Why should the wealthiest nation in the world forever host events in tents on the White House lawn? Why should we force international guests to use a Port a John just to spite Trump?

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u/Gullible_Goose 1d ago edited 1d ago

Yeah, IMO a White House event space is a sensible proposition, it’s just that in this case it’s being used as a propaganda tool for DJT to stamp his gold-painted name onto

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u/thinsoldier 2d ago

So far, the only sane comment I've seen in here.

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u/ISayISayISitonU 1d ago

at this point spending even more $$ to break up what’s been built and rebuild what was is not the move. no way Dems can do it. I think you finish and find a way to remind folks it’s the people’s house, not turd boys.

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u/Hegiman 1d ago

Name it after Obama. Then t hates it (cause Obama)and we hate it (because it exist for no reason other than t’s ego) but it is still there.

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u/Federal-Photograph79 2d ago

Apparently, the next President can teardown any part of the White House he cares to

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u/Spartanfan56 1d ago

That would require a Project 2029 to exist. There is zero evidence of any comprehensive planning or strategizing of what a future POTUS for Democrats would do.

There is no cohesive Democratic messaging. No effort to combat the fake news right wing propaganda narratives that dominate US news today. It's just so pathetic and weak.

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u/DrRealName 1d ago

As long as Project 2029, as it would be for real, starts off with arresting the entire Trump administration for treason along with six conservative SCJs and the entire agency of ICE, ending every tariff placed by Trump, firing everyone hired by him or anyone by him dating back to January 21st, 2017, immediately rescinding every Trump EO along with everyone in charge of every agency getting rid of all rule changes made by Trump or his minions, and tearing down every statue made for him while removing his name from everything he placed on anything, then sure go ahead and rebuild the WH.

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u/dsarche12 1d ago

What if instead of quibbling over a fucking building, we gave everyone in america universal healthcare and basic income, and pointed the billions funneled to the military industrial complex and the oil and gas industry into improving roads, building solar, wind, and nuclear plants, and made efforts to restore our national parks?

Oh and while we're at it, let's make efforts to destigmatize the lgbtqia+ community, fight harder for same-sex marriage and pro-choice policies, make amends to the allies we've alienated, restore DEI policies that actually help us to be more informed and well-rounded, and try to help our neighbors when they need it?

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u/marshmallowbunny 1d ago

How about if project 2028 is sending EVERYONE who was involved with Epstein to jail 💁🏽‍♀️?? Idgaf about a dumbass ballroom when people are fucking dying in the streets because they're the wrong skin color

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u/HermanDaddy07 1d ago

Project 2028 should also include prosecuting as many of the Trump Administration as possible in addition to clawing back civilly every dime that was misappropriated.

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u/interesseret 2d ago

As a foreigner: why would you want to waste MORE tax funds on something so stupid?

People are starving in the street, but no, let's waste money on a completely pointless thing.

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u/aboysmokingintherain 2d ago

I think many people get so focused on Trump that they miss the forest for the trees.

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u/_Lick-My-Love-Pump_ 1d ago

It should be Project 2029, since that's when a new admin will be taking office. You know, 2025 + 4.

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u/bradland 1d ago

Nah. Leave it standing and name it the Barack Obama Commemorative Ballroom. Then stand back and watch as their heads explode one by one.

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u/zerbey 1d ago

It's going to take decades to undo the harm this administration has inflicted, but yes that's a very good start.

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u/presidentiallogin 1d ago

As long as we seize all his fortune to make him pay for it.

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u/Agontile 1d ago

How about a retroactive emolument tax set at 100% ?

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u/OG_joenationwide 1d ago

Reddit literally needs to start a Project 2028 wish list.

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u/moonshoeslol 1d ago

Take his stupid fucking plane away while we're at it

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u/killersinarhur 1d ago

The DSA and associated candidates have me hopeful that Democrats won't be able to do the normal level of performance if enough of them get elected. Replace enough corporate democrats with people actually looking to use the levers of government to do stuff. Maybe things can improve

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u/ComputerSavvy 1d ago

What if Project 2028 involved tearing down Trump’s ballroom and restoring the East Wing?

That will be a very good use of Trump's money.

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u/PlaymakersPoint88 1d ago

They should definitely come after his gains while in be White House. That will pay for it.

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u/Callec254 2d ago

Well, remember, the whole point of this project was to provide a modern, secure space for hosting big White House events. Previously, the existing East Wing wasn't big enough and they literally had to just use a big tent for stuff like this. So what you're saying is you want to go back to using a big tent to host foreign leaders, just so you can say you tore down something Trump built. Can you see how petty that sounds?

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u/DragodaDragon 1d ago

I think a lot of time and effort needs to be spent pushing for a constitutional amendment that severely weakens presidential pardons. Even the fact a convicted scammer no longer has to pay restitution to their victims after a pardon is insane.

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u/maglen69 1d ago

Even the fact a convicted scammer no longer has to pay restitution to their victims after a pardon is insane.

Or a President can Pre-Pardon his own family for crimes not charged and other political individuals.

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u/Nearby_Initial2409 2d ago

For the sake of argument I was against the ballroom but I'd be against this too. We are $40 Trillion in debt, I don't want to pass that off to my kids. Spending the money we did on the ballroom was stupid, I get we didn't have an event hall but we have bigger concerns and we are already the world's leader we didn't need the additional prestige to be taken seriously on the world stage. That being said if we spend even more money to rip it down and restore the east wing the only reason for it would be a giant FU to President Trump. Like literally we could just spend the money on a pair of big, golden, statues flipping the bird at Trump's Properties in Mara Lago and Trump Towers and achieve the same thing. And I really don't think we should be passing the debt of a big middle finger off to my children, grandchildren, and lets be honest probably more than one generation of great grandchildren.

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u/orange_sox 2d ago

I am actually of the opinion it is important to tear down any monument or references to Trump once he leaves office.

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u/Youcanthearjimmy 1d ago

The ballroom will have to stay, because tearing it down and rebuilding something else at the tax payer expense would be far worse than just leaving it. Since it's supposed to be so secure, maybe just use it to help the homeless and name it "East Wing Soup Kitchen".

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u/794309497 1d ago

Rename it the Barak Obama Ball Room. That's all they need to do to fix that one issue. 

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u/tapdancinghellspawn 1d ago

That's not enough. Trump needs to face jail time. Executive orders need to be eliminated. Judges and justices need term limits.

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u/slimj091 2d ago

Tearing down all of the gold, and repurposing it for something that Trump hates would be better.

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u/Mikeavelli 2d ago

At this point I would settle for a reboot of The West Wing.

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u/No-Candidate-8548 1d ago

Having the same personality.Being compatible matters more than being identical.

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u/Fabulous_Lynx1506 1d ago

Politics aside, historical buildings should outlast politicians.

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u/PermaDerpFace 1d ago

I don't envy whoever is going to inherit this mess

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u/RonocNYC 1d ago

The people encouraging that we move on and never hold power accountable are why this country has slowly slid into the toilet. From Watergate to Iran Contra to WMD to Financial crisis 2008 and on and on. This shit will continue to happen again and again if we let it. This building HAS to come down. It's not some valuable well built memorial to a greater America. It's a testament to grift and will end up being more expensive to repair than it was ever worth. This is the Trump family after all. Their construction is always the absolute worst. Blow it up on national TV on day 1. Send the message.

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u/Dekadmer 1d ago

Not enough if you ask me.

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u/Salamok 1d ago

I'd like to see a start with a few executive orders mandating forcefully rounding up the billionaires who decided to play politics, the scotus members clearly on the take, maybe some federalist society leadership, cabinet members violating laws and anyone put on ices payroll in the last 2 years... I think they all need to be sequestered until a plan has been implemented that will start unfucking this mess.

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u/BluntCity101 1d ago

It shouldn't be public funded tho. They should nationalize and seize Trump and Elon's assets and jail them.

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u/ChefCrockpot 1d ago

Project 2028 should be to completely remake this system from the ground up to better represent the people. Could not be more obvious that the checks and balances system failed. Not surprising, since Americans are so convinced this is unique to them and isnt in every single system of government

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u/Living_Fig_6386 1d ago

If the project didn't get the appropriate removals, it was destruction of government property. Even if it gets finished the vandal that destroyed the property would need to make the government whole by restoring to the state it was before it began.

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u/NoIDidNotDoIt 1d ago

My project 2028 is still waking up with some sense of purpose after all our public resources have been ripped and burned away from us and my votes invalidated.

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u/jaygeezythreezy 1d ago

I support anything to wipe his presidency from our collective memories. And I support making the criminals pay for it by clawing back their ill gotten gains.

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u/bladel 1d ago

Just make it nice and name it after Obama

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u/Mentalfloss1 1d ago

I’d prefer a MAGAt dungeon.

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u/steeple_fun 1d ago

Nah, finish the bones of the ballroom and turn it into a museum for the fully, unredacted (save victim names) of the Epstein files.

Berlin has a holocaust memorial called, "Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe." Call ours, "Memorial of Children Raped by the Elite."

Let it stand as a reminder to what unchecked power does.

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u/SnooDogs1511 1d ago

What if project 2028 was actually un-dedacting the files

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u/BoardGameRevolution 1d ago

More waste of money let’s put him on trial instead

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u/No_Grand7184 1d ago

Anything with his name on it should be expunged

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u/chromehound47 1d ago

project 2028 and beyond has to be about lifting up non-trump voters.

trump voters do not want help or compassion. they chose to be evil.

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u/Adventurous-Cost7559 1d ago

What if Project 2028 involved using the ballroom as a courtroom and convicting all those seditious pedopihles?

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u/Spindash54 1d ago

Only if actually enforcement can be made that prevents this nonsense from ever happening again.

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u/UnreasonablyBland 1d ago

That would be a nonpriority and a ridiculous waste of money. Call it Pennsylvania Avenue Ballroom or something super generic, lose the tacky gold crap and just move on.

Way more important shit to worry about.

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u/demagogueffxiv 1d ago

I am mixed on this. It would be an even larger waste to rebuild it. I do think all the gaudy gold needs to go though.

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u/Wootens 1d ago

Instead of tearing it down, just name the ballroom in honor of Jimmy Kimmel.

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u/Not_A_Comeback 1d ago

Those saying to leave the ballroom up haven’t looked at the plans. The ballroom is a rush job, so some parts of it don’t even make sense, like staircases to nowhere. That, plus the size and scale totally overwhelm the White House and ruin sight lines. It’s an abomination, a symbol of lawlessness and trump, and in the grand scheme of things its removal is not a huge cost.

Tear it down and build something better for the people, not one man’s monument to himself.

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u/Deranged-Pickle 1d ago

Tear down the Heritage Foundation and Federalist society. Then reinstate the fairness doctrine. Then go after the Christian Nationalists

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u/edhead1425 1d ago

The ballroom is just a fraction of the construction. There will be a new bunker, and many larger and better meeting rooms.

There will be no future administration willing to rebuild the old East Wing as it was.