President Donald Trump deployed some surprisingly crass language when discussing the White House during an address on Monday evening.
Speaking to attendees at his Rose Garden Club dinner, hosted in the newly renovated Rose Garden for law enforcement as part of Police Week, the 79-year-old shared that first lady Melania Trump had told him to “act presidential” and not use “foul language” before he went and did exactly that.
“This place was not properly taken care of,” Trump said, gesturing to his surroundings. “I was told by my wife, ‘You have to act presidential, so don’t use foul language.‘ I won’t, therefore.”
“Normally I would have said it was a s--t house,” he continued. “But I don’t want to say that,” he added.
Trump—who has festooned the White House in gold and filled the Oval Office with gaudy trinkets—went on to describe everything that he felt was wrong with the place when he moved back in.
“The columns were falling down, the plaster was falling off... You made a speech, and they would say, ‘Couldn’t you fix up the paint job up there?’” he joked. “This place is tippy-top now, including all of the brand new beautiful stone, I paid for it myself, all of the stone, all of the different things we have.”
“We’re bringing the White House back to shape,” he added, before boasting about his new marble statues of Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin.
“I spent a lot of time on bringing this house back, because this house was in very bad shape. Those walls were in horrible shape,” he continued, pointing in front of him. “Look at them now, they’re perfect. The plaster was falling off, it was terrible. It’s the White House, it’s gotta look incredible. It’s gotta be pristine.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
Like clockwork, he then began waxing poetic about his favorite subject: his $400 million ballroom.
“The big thing is, we’re building a ballroom in the back, which will be, I think, the most beautiful ballroom anywhere in the world. You’ll never see anything like it. And it’ll also be very safe, it’s got glass this thick,” he added. “It’s at the highest level of safety, and you won’t have a situation like you had two weeks ago on Saturday night.”
Following the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner last month, Trump and his allies were quick to begin pushing the narrative that building his extravagant ballroom was a matter of ensuring the president’s safety.
“We looked at all of the conditions that took place tonight, and I will say, you know, it’s not a particularly secure building,” Trump told reporters, referring to the Washington Hilton where the event was held.
“This is why we have to have all of the attributes of what we’re planning at the White House. It’s actually a larger room and it’s much more secure. It’s got gun proof, it’s bulletproof glass,” he added.
The cost of the president’s ballroom project, for which he demolished the entire East Wing of the White House, has skyrocketed beyond its initial $200 million estimate. It is now expected to cost as much as $400 million, funded entirely by private donations, Trump has said.
Despite repeatedly assuring Americans that the renovations will be privately funded, Republicans are now seeking $1 billion of taxpayer money to fund “security adjustments and upgrades” for the project, citing the shooting at the WHCD as one of their reasons for doing so.
“Due in part to the recent assassination attempt on President Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the proposal would provide the United States Secret Service with the resources they need to fully and completely harden the White House complex,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told NPR.
In addition to the ballroom, the president is building a defensive bunker beneath the demolished East Wing to replace a World War II-era facility built by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Other renovations he has unveiled around the White House include adding a “Presidential Walk of Fame” to the West Wing Colonnade, gilding the Oval Office, and transforming the modest green-and-white Lincoln Bathroom into a marble monstrosity.
His renovations haven’t stopped at the White House, with the president also hanging up banners featuring his face on government buildings around D.C. and adding his name to facades of both the Kennedy Center and the Institute for Peace.
Trump has also planned a 250-foot Triumphal Arch for Memorial Circle, a traffic roundabout near Arlington National Cemetery. Survey work for the arch began in D.C. on Monday, while on Sunday, the president boasted that his “Magnificent Ballroom” was “under construction, and ahead of schedule.”
