Whatever your view of the current renovation at the White House to make way for a new ballroom, there could hardly be a more apt metaphor for the presidency.

Washington

The White House is undergoing renovations to accommodate a new ballroom, a project initiated during President Trump's tenure. This addition follows a series of historical modifications by past presidents, ranging from practical upgrades like plumbing and electricity to more aspirational or symbolic changes, such as solar panels and decorative enhancements.

Unlike earlier renovations that aimed to preserve or elevate the building's national character, the current changes reflect a more personalized aesthetic, similar to Trump's Mar-a-Lago club. The shift raises questions about the role of presidential prerogative in shaping the White House, and whether such changes serve the office, the people, or the individual president.

Trump's White House renovations

And whatever your view of the current renovation at the White House to make room for a new ballroom, there could hardly be a more apt metaphor for the presidency. It is a job of stewardship, tending what you temporarily occupy with the knowledge you will pass it on. A president is a mere renter in the finest property in public housing who should not, as Coolidge put it, go ahead blazing new and strange paths. On the other hand, the job was designed for bold action, what FDR called bold, persistent experimentation. The White House has always been a kind of national mirror. Presidents leave traces of their confidence and insecurity. John Adams' inscription on the fireplace, may none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof. Some presidential remodels are practical. Grant put in plumbing and electric lights, others aspirational. Carter put solar panels on the roof. Reagan took them down. The first White House renovation was involuntary. The British burned it during the War of 1812. Chester Arthur, who sported ornamental side whiskers, filled the East Room with Tiffany glass and Gilded Age ornament. One reporter said it looked like a hotel lobby. His successor, Theodore Roosevelt, quietly took it all out to restore the building's Republican simplicity. A president's house, not a tycoon's parlor. Truman tore out the rotting beams to keep the place from collapsing, conditions had gotten so bad a piano leg punched through the floor. Jacqueline Kennedy turned the People's House into a cultural showcase, a museum of American taste. President Trump has remade Kennedy's Rose Garden. It looks more like his Mar-a-Lago club now. The new ballroom seeks the same aesthetic. This completes a cultural shift from renovations that preserved or elevated to renovations that personalize. It is the decorating equivalent of a central presidential question. When do the prerogatives of the office serve the people, serve the office, or merely serve the occupant?

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Breakdown