I agree that any triumphal arch should be torn down, if it gets built, as there is nothing to celebrate about Trump’s presidency and much to lament about - no triumph here.
If the ballroom gets finished (and it looks like it will), the next Democratic president should redecorate it and rename it the way Trump has been renaming things.
If Trump is still alive and relatively aware, I’d level the ballroom just to bother him. (petty, I kmow)
If he’s gone, your plan is fine.
I doubt it. I keep getting scatterings across my feeds that he’s building a bunker. It wouldn’t surprise me.
Given that the ballroom will be famed as an example of poor architecture, I suppose, if named, or renamed, it would have to be named after someone disliked. Naming after Carter or Obama would be no gift to their legacy.
Better to stop naming after partisan figures like presidents.
Suppose that the ballroom/new East Wing was named after a prominent,morally decent, Democrat. Then once the GOP comes back into the presidency, maybe in a slightly less MAGA but still objectionable form, they would rename the West Wing after a indecent Republican, Trump or otherwise. If they are clever enough to let the naming of the wings be one wing for a normal Democrat, and the other an autocratic Republican, then what does the next Democrat do?
I realize that if every other president is MAGA or MAGA-adjacent, we have bigger problems than buildings being named after dictators. But I think the least-bad alternative with naming is to not name after a person.
In other words, Trump can continue the construction until SCOTUS makes a final decision. Maybe in a couple years.
Perhaps the DJ Trump Memorial Ballroom?
Labelled in tasteful faux gilt lettering.
On a scale clearly visible from the Washington Monument.
In Comic Sans, of course.
As a lasting memorial to the collective socio-economic disfunction that allowed it.
Lest We Forget
Kinda like how DOGE killing USAID was illegal, but courts said “well… too late now, we can’t do anything.”
Fascism 101: Move fast and break things.
It should be burnt down
It will at least need to be searched for any microphones or such ‘accidentally’ left behind by any workers. I say we should make sure to award any demolition contract to a Canadian firm, just for, well, reasons.
Unless and until our public education system and underlying national culture is repaired to a state where individuals can be counted on to think independently and critically, against a background of understanding their own history and collective vision, touching anything with Trump’s fingerprints on it will only be loudly (and correctly) crowed as Political oneupsmanship. Anything Trump has done that you disagree with is merely a symptom of a society who looked at him and thought, “Yeah. He’s a pretty good idea!” THE only ones it will hurt are the victims who got swept up on the wrong side of the culture war by being exposed to the wrong propaganda. Trump won’t “benefit” from any of it, and half the nation will feel a call to shame rather than a call to unity.
A dictator would destroy any trace of his predecessor’s reign. A member of a humanist society would allow, possibly guide, the people into a place where the tackiness is merely identified and removed or explained. Personally, I might be tempted to leave all the devastation as it is. Leave the disgusting reflecting pool, nameless Center for the Performing Arts, security liability “Ballroom”, all of it. Leave it a wreck. And add plaques explaining how the absence of repairs is to serve as a memorial to the time when the entire nation abandoned personal accountability. It could be democracy’s own Gedächtniskirche.
This proposed response to Trump’s depredations makes me think of the Paradox of Tolerance.
I say we instead follow the practice from antiquity of damnatio memoriae (condemnation of memory). In the case of the ancient Egyptians, the intent was to completely erase deposed and/or heretical pharaohs, believing that destroying a ruler’s name and image destroyed their soul for eternity.
In the case of Trump, who has attempted to plaster his name and likeness on anything and everything—from our monuments to our currency—I think it would be particularly fitting.
That is a nice daydream, anyway. 
Unfortunately, I suspect you are correct, and any attempt to do this will be viewed by his supporters as vindictive “oneupsmanship.” And attempting to erase the past only invites repeating it. Better to instead let the idiocy of Trump’s actions and policies become apparent to all.
So maybe the best thing to do is for an independent commission to make the decision about the future status of the ballroom, assuming it is ever built.
Not just his supporters, though. ANYONE who has grown weary of the culture war that sets against one another and holds our heads underwater as a nation. When Trump is out of office, I never want to hear his name again or see a headline feeding him his daily dose of attention. I don’t wanna hear about Obama or Biden, either–they’re not presidents anymore and are poltitcally irrelevant. Sick to death of “Democrats this” and Republicans that", as if the parties aren’t just different masks on the same hateful head. A good beginning for national recovery would be to treat both parties as equally and eagerly complicit in what has happened here in the past 26 years. Rebuilding is going to take at least 50 years. This makes it a perfect time to vote 3rd or 4th party, at least at state level, while we focus on rebuilding our 50 houses.
How about we try a 2nd party. It’s worth a try
If the ballroom gets finished, we should sell off the overpriced and gaudy decorations and fill the space with office cubicles.
as if the parties aren’t just different masks on the same hateful head. A good beginning for national recovery would be to treat both parties as equally and eagerly complicit in what has happened here in the past 26 years.
I reject the bothsidesism. Only one party has decided that fascism isn’t so bad if their guy is in charge. Only one party has happily given up its role in Congress and enabled authoritarianism. Only one party stopped the impeachment of someone extorting a foreign nation and attempting to overthrow the government. Are Democrats perfect? No, but at least they care about governing.
That’s a debatable opinion for sure, and I remain firm in my position that “bothsidesism” is the reality. Not sure if it would be right to hijack this thread to hash it out tho.
There already IS a nuclear-attack-proof bunker under the White House. It was expanded and re-enforced during Obama’s Presidency.
Of course you’d never know that to listen to Donald. According to him, unless he’s allowed to do the entire Ballroom Plus project, he’d be reduced to hiding under a flimsy card table during the WWIII he’s surely going to inspire…
el donald thinks that anything that Obama got near has cooties.
Very true. It’s reasonable to guess that Donald ordered a lot of unnecessary “re-dos” of things that were already finished in The Bunker. So that there would be no chance of an Obama fingerprint remaining anywhere.