Jon Meacham: Trump’s W.H. Ballroom Is ‘a Definition of Why We Had the American Revolution’

SCARBOROUGH: “So, Jon, take us through the history of presidents changing, altering the White House. ‘The National Review’ has written an editorial saying, come on, get over it, presidents have done this in the past. Liberals, the White House doesn’t belong to you.”
MEACHAM: “Right. You know, the British burned it, so there’s that. Or try to start there. You know, the most significant — the two most significant, I’d say, would be the 1903 construction of the West Wing, which was the Oval Office. The Oval Office was based on what’s called the Oval Study in the main house. That was the reason for the echo of the design. One of the metaphors that you can’t make up was in, I think it was Christmas Eve 1931, the West Wing caught fire under Herbert Hoover, right? So the country sort of descending into chaos and the house itself catches fire. The other is the Truman, the renovation that happened under President Truman. He and Mrs. Truman moved to Blair House across the way for several years. But, you know, as ever with President Trump, you know, you do have to step back and say, well, what is he trying to do? What is the — you know, let’s — let’s not bang on our high chairs here. And to me, one of the issues here is so much of the — I haven’t seen ‘The National Review’ piece — but so much of the controversy here might be settled if, for instance, he actually paid attention to norms, to the customs of having — you know, Congress was very much involved in the 1940s version of this. Bring in the National Trust, bring in the White House Historical Association, a wonderful group founded in the Kennedy administration. Terrific people who care deeply about the house. You know, do this with some sensitivity to the fact that you’re not a king. You know, you can’t just do what you want to do when you want to do it. That’s an adolescent response. That’s — that’s not fair to adolescents, right, that’s — that’s infantile. You know, just to do it because you can is in some ways a definition of why we had the American Revolution. And I can hear conservatives saying, oh, you know, construction project leads to fears about democracy. You know, just take a deep breath on that. It is a particular the way the president’s done this that reflects and illuminates a universal. And to go back to what you were just saying a minute ago about the Senate, more and more — I don’t know if anybody here agrees — I miss John McCain today more than I do when when when he died. I just — can you see him on the floor talking or walking down the hall talking as he inevitably did to reporters? What he would say about what’s happening at the Pentagon, what he would say about the White House, and the immense credibility he had. To the senators there, I would say, try to be more McCain-esque.”