Schmoozing the super-rich to fund a $300m ballroom while cutting food aid for those on low incomes threw the president’s architectural folly into sharp relief

It was a feast fit for a king – and any billionaire willing to be his subject. From gold-rimmed plates on gold-patterned tablecloths decorated with gold candlestick holders, they gorged on heirloom tomato panzanella salad, beef wellington and a dessert of roasted Anjou pears, cinnamon crumble and butterscotch ice-cream.

On 15 October, Donald Trump welcomed nearly 130 deep-pocketed donors, allies and representatives of major companies for a dinner at the White House to reward them for their pledged contributions to a vast new ballroom now expected to cost $300m. That the federal government had shut down two weeks earlier scarcely seemed to matter.

But two weeks later, the shutdown is starting to bite – and throw Trump’s architectural folly into sharp relief. On Saturday, with Congress still locked in a legislative stalemate, a potential benefit freeze could leave tens of millions of low-income Americans without food aid. Democrats accuse Trump’s Republican party of “weaponising hunger” to pursue an extreme rightwing agenda.

  • comeonitsnotlike@feddit.nu
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    1 day ago

    I get second hand embarrassment from the lack of spine in the everyday American. I thought they’d care about democracy. I was very much wrong.

    • TheJesusaurus@piefed.ca
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      1 day ago

      I didn’t think the people propping up this administration ever cared about democracy but I didn’t think they’d cheer for themselves being cuked multiple times a day by the wealthy elite who are spitting down at them from the literal palace trump is building on top of the corpose of the home of the American people

    • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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      1 day ago

      People are successfully resisting armored gunmen with sheer numbers and their bare hands. Perhaps it is you who is uninformed.

      • nanoswarm9k@lemmus.org
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        5 hours ago

        Some folks don’t even know they’re just mirroring mainstream u.s. media lies. Folks think they’re too smart to gaslight or can’t think outside a stereotype or empathize with a different logistics set.

        But also did anyone get sniped on Jan 6? But also is a non whitenationalist crowd going to get the same treatment?

        A prayer for the bailfunds and the civil rights lawyers.