Stephen Colbert has proof that the Trump administration knows how unpopular the president’s ballroom project is.
As of Thursday, the East Wing of the White House is being demolished to make room for Trump’s $250 million, 90,000-square-foot ballroom, even though the president promised in July that it wouldn’t be touched at all.
“Here [Trump] is talking about it this summer,” Colbert said.
He showed a clip of Trump explaining, “It’ll be near it, but not touching it. And pays total respect to the existing building, which I’m the biggest fan of. It’s my favorite.”
“So, that was a lie,” Colbert replied.
Quoting from a Wall Street Journal article, Colbert soon added, “Someone in his administration is clearly smart enough to know how bad this looks, because the Treasury Department is right next door facing the demolition, and Treasury has now told their employees not to share any photos of the construction.”
“Not generally something you’d instruct when you’re proud of what’s going on,” Colbert said.
Colbert bashed Trump’s destruction of the White House further, calling it “deeply unsettling” and joking, “We are not giving him the security deposit back.”
Colbert also ripped into the new round of racist messages leaked on Monday from another Republican group chat.
One of those messages, written by Trump’s nominee for Office of Special Counsel Paul Ingrassia, boasted that he had “a Nazi streak in me from time to time.”
“Folks, there’s no such thing as a Nazi streak,” Colbert replied. “You got any Nazi in you? You a Nazi.”
Ingrassia also wrote that holidays like Martin Luther King Day and Juneteenth should be “eviscerated.”
“Wow,” Colbert said. “What a weirdly violent way to talk about days. ‘Oh, give me 10 minutes alone with Memorial Day and I’ll give it something to remember!’”
Ingrassia withdrew himself from consideration for the Special Counsel position Tuesday evening, posting on X, “Unfortunately I do not have enough Republican votes at this time.”
