Trump Invites Xi, His Wife To Be ‘First’ To Step Into Ballroom Construction Site, Saying It’s ‘In Honor’ of Chinese President

President Trump on Thursday night invited President Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan — known as Madame Peng — to be the first foreign leaders to step foot into his ballroom construction site. Mr. Trump said he would do so “in honor” of the Chinese president. Mr. Trump’s ballroom has been one of his favorite obsessions of his second term, bulldozing the East Wing — previously home to the first lady’s private office suite — without congressional approval. Last month, the Supreme Court greenlit the construction in a 5–4 decision, though Chief Justice Roberts joined the court’s three liberals in dissent. He wrote for the minority that the construction is “likely unlawful.”At the state dinner with the Chinese president and his delegation on Thursday, Mr. Trump said it would be an “honor” to invite Mr. Xi and his wife to be the first foreign leaders to step foot in the area.“If I could go off script for just a second … as a special treat in honor of President Xi and Madame Peng, I’d like to invite everyone in the room to visit through that beautiful curtain in the back,” Mr. Trump said as the crowd chuckled.“You will see something that I think you will really love,” Mr. Trump said. “In honor of you, you will be the first people to step foot on that.”“It’s our honor to have you do so,” he continued.“ This is in honor of President Xi [and] Madame Peng.”Mr. Trump has been pushing for the construction of a White House ballroom for more than a decade. He first approached President Obama’s chief political strategist, David Axelrod, in 2010, to argue that presidents deserved more grand event spaces. “When @realDonaldTrump pitched me on a modular ballroom for the White House in 2010, he made no mention of it as a security issue. He just said presidents should have more elegant accommodations to entertain foreign leaders at state dinners,” Mr. Axelrod wrote on X earlier this year.Mr. Trump himself apparently offered to pay for a new “modular” ballroom for the White House. Mr. Axelrod said in a February interview with the New York Times that Mr. Trump complained to him by phone that the White House should not be throwing parties in “shitty little tents out in the backyard.”Mr. Trump is currently in the middle of various renovation and construction projects across the nation’s capital and in northern Virginia. He is hoping to build a “triumphal arch” between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. Like with the ballroom, Mr. Trump argues that the arch will be used as a security facility complete with sniper vantage points and munitions storage.Republicans have made clear that they did not want to see Mr. Trump honor Mr. Xi in any way or welcome him with any sense of warmness — a warning that apparently went unheeded as Mr. Trump showed off his new helipad and laughed with Mr. Xi about his presidential “walk of fame” outside of the Oval Office. On Tuesday, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Roger Wicker, said on the Senate floor that Mr. Trump should not have even invited Mr. Xi to Washington. This official visit is Mr. Xi’s state visit to the United States since 2015. “I know the president intends to discuss trade and artificial intelligence with the Chinese leadership — and rightfully so,” Mr. Wicker said on the floor. “But, Mr. President, during every minute of dialogue, our commander-in-chief should keep in mind that his guest is a brutal, unelected, and oppressive dictator who seeks to dominate his neighbors and whose massive military arsenal is aimed directly at the United States of America. “

Trump Invites Xi, His Wife To Be ‘First’ To Step Into Ballroom Construction Site, Saying It’s ‘In Honor’ of Chinese President

Trump Invites Xi, His Wife To Be ‘First’ To Step Into Ballroom Construction Site, Saying It’s ‘In Honor’ of Chinese President

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