{"id":118,"date":"2026-05-18T05:35:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T05:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=118"},"modified":"2026-05-18T05:35:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T05:35:00","slug":"john-oliver-mocks-trumps-ballroom-plans-again-and-his-contradictory-claims-over-the-reflecting-pool-upgrades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=118","title":{"rendered":"John Oliver Mocks Trump\u2019s Ballroom Plans (Again) and His Contradictory Claims Over the Reflecting Pool Upgrades"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\nJohn Oliver took aim at President Donald Trump\u2018s plans for a \u201chuge\u201d ballroom \u2014 something he\u2019s done before and also before that \u2014 and his contradictory claims over upgrades on the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool on Sunday\u2019s <em>Last Week Tonight.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=116\">Christopher Nolan Says \u2018The Odyssey\u2019 Is \u201cThe Most Extreme Version\u201d of the Story He Could Make<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tOliver started out by pointing to Trump\u2018s social media post amid his trip to China wherein he noted that \u201cChina has a Ballroom, and so should the U.S.A.! It is under construction ahead of schedule and will be the finest facility of its kind anywhere in the U.S.A.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tSaid Oliver: \u201cBecause incredibly, despite everything going on in the world right now, Trump\u2019s still relentlessly focused on what\u2019s been called a \u2018sweeping makeover\u2019 of the White House and Washington D.C. In the past year, he\u2019s installed two massive flagpoles, a Presidential Walk of Fame outside the White House, paved over the Rose Garden and redecorated the Oval Office, as if to answer the question, \u2018What if an ancient Egyptian pharaoh owned an Airbnb?&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tOliver then showed video of Trump last week making the argument that all of these upgrades are necessary.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cThis place was not properly taken care of,\u201d Trump said. \u201cI was told by my wife, \u2018You have to act presidential, so don\u2019t use foul language.\u2019 I won\u2019t. Therefore, normally I would have said it was a shithouse, but I don\u2019t want to say that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tSaid Oliver: \u201cOK, to be clear, Trump\u2019s foul language isn\u2019t what\u2019s been stopping him from being presidential. Simply not cursing wouldn\u2019t make Trump a fitting president in the same way that a white coat wouldn\u2019t make [Philadelphia Flyers mascot] Gritty a practicing oncologist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tOliver then turned back to the topic of the ballroom Trump has ordered to be built, which the<em> Last Week Tonight <\/em>host called Trump\u2019s \u201cmost ambitious project\u201d while noting that it \u201chas spiraled out of control.\u201d When the project was first announced, the White House said it would cost about $200 million and be paid for by Trump and donors.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=114\">\u201cThe Independence of \u201960 Minutes\u2019 Has Been Critical\u201d: Anderson Cooper Bids Farewell to CBS News Show With a Plea<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cSince then, the projected cost has gone up to $300 million, then $400 million,\u201d Oliver said. \u201cAnd last week, he argued the only reason the cost has changed is because after \u2018deep-rooted studies,\u2019 the ballroom\u2019s approximately \u2018twice the size.\u2019 And when a reporter dared to ask him about that on Tuesday, he kind of lost his shit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tOliver showed a clip of Trump talking to reporters claiming that the the project is under budget. \u201cI\u2019ve doubled the size of it because we obviously need that, and we\u2019re right now on budget, under budget, and ahead of schedule,\u201d he said. When asked by a female reporter about the budget doubling, Trump replied: \u201cI doubled the size of it, you dumb person. You are not a smart person.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tSaid Oliver: \u201cOK, OK, I know it is not unusual for him to demean a female journalist, but even by his standards, that was bad. The only time it\u2019s OK to yell \u2018you dumb person\u2019 at anyone is, as I think we all know, if you\u2019re watching <em>Jeopardy<\/em>, and you know the answer, but the contestants don\u2019t: \u2018Who is Emily Dickinson, you fucking idiot?! Nineteenth-century largely unpublished female poet from Massachusetts \u2014 who is Emily Dickinson? You\u2019re not a smart person.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tOliver then went on to talk about the reflecting pool upgrades, which went from about $2 million in estimated repairs to $13 million, and the fact that Trump said he was \u201cgonna call three guys who I know worked on my swimming pools, which \u2014 come on \u2014 that is not how to fix a national memorial, it sounds more like the start of an incredible post-divorce girls\u2019 weekend for Deborah,\u201d Oliver joked.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe <em>Last Week Tonight <\/em>host also pointed to the contradictions in Trump\u2019s statements that he was going to reach out to some contractors he knew to later claiming he didn\u2019t know the contractor who won the contract after it was revealed to be a no-bid contract.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cLook, is this the most important thing this president could be doing right now? Of course it isn\u2019t,\u201d Oliver said. \u201cThat would be a tie between learning where Iran is on a map and finally listening to the three ghosts who\u2019ve been waking him up every Christmas Eve for the last 70 years. It should really go without saying, if you are a president who\u2019d rather focus on ballroom construction and pool maintenance than the crucial work of actually running a country, then I think it is fair to say, to borrow a phrase that I heard recently, you are not a smart fucking person.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=112\">Kiyoshi Kurosawa Has Finally Made His Samurai Movie<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John Oliver took aim at President Donald Trump&#8217;s plans for his new ballroom and his upgrades on Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool on Last Week Tonight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[120,121,122,123,124,125,126],"class_list":["post-118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting","tag-donald-trump","tag-hbo","tag-john-oliver","tag-last-week-tonight","tag-last-week-tonight-with-john-oliver","tag-politics","tag-trump"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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