Kamala Harris slams Trump for building White House ballroom while ‘depriving’ US of healthcare

Former US vice president Kamala Harris has become one of the latest political voices to criticise President Donald Trump’s decision to build a $300 million ballroom for the White House, which has seen the East Wing of the iconic building demolished to make space for the gold-plated venue.

While ABC News reported the space is already being referred to as “The President Donald J. Trump Ballroom” and that senior officials have said the name will “likely stick”, Trump later dismissed this as “fake news” and that he “[doesn’t] have any plans to call it after myself”.

“Probably going to call it the Presidential Ballroom or something like that, we haven't really thought about a name yet,” he told reporters on Saturday.

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And days after images of construction workers demolishing parts of the East Wing circulated online and sparked outrage, Harris has also called out Trump’s intense focus on the building works – a project which his press secretary Karoline Leavitt has said is his “main priority”.

In an interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg which aired on Sunday, Harris said that she and others are working to “remind people that it has always been the Democratic Party that has always stood for working people”.

She continued: “The work we need to do going forward is also, frankly, to provide the contrast, because right now, we have a president in the Oval Office who is building a ballroom for his rich friends, while he is depriving working people of healthcare during this government shutdown period.”

And Harris isn’t the only one to criticise the demolition of the White House’s East Wing in recent days, as Ronald Reagan’s daughter Patti Davis told CNN on Saturday that the building work has been “so heartbreaking” to witness.

The author said: “I literally wept sometimes. Don’t worry, I won’t cry on your show, but I literally have, and it’s just nothing I thought I’d ever see, that kind of destruction.

“It’s gone, that whole wing of the White House is gone.”

It follows an opinion piece by Davis for The New York Times on Friday, in which she wrote: “The images we’ve now all seen of the East Wing being demolished are heartbreaking. Over the centuries, many presidents have altered the White House, and certainly older buildings need to be updated and repaired. But this is complete destruction.

“We silence so much when we tear down places that are there to teach us, inspire us, humble us. Ghosts and memories drift away in the dust, the wreckage, and we are all poorer as a result.”

Davis’ intervention is a bit awkward for Trump, as this week has also seen him talk about Reagan when he fumed about a “fake” Ontario government advert featuring real audio from the late president criticising tariffs.

Ouch.

Indy100 has contacted the White House for comment

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