{"id":5215,"date":"2026-08-23T13:35:46","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T13:35:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=5215"},"modified":"2026-08-23T13:35:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T13:35:46","slug":"trumps-sick-new-delusion-is-suddenly-national-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=5215","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s sick new delusion is suddenly ‘national security’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Last week, on an emergency basis, Trump asked the Supreme Court<\/u> to rescue the centerpiece of his \u2018capital improvement campaign.\u2019 Trump now calls his ballroom\u2014a 90,000 ft.2 gilded party palace where donors in haute couture<\/u> can eat wagyu beef<\/u> and dance the night away\u2014an \u201curgent matter of national security<\/u>.\u201d <\/p>\n

Read more Trump whispers spark fears of \u2018unprecedented\u2019 midterm power grab<\/a><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s legal team was responding to a lower court\u2019s stop-work order on the ballroom.<\/u> An appellate panel ruled that presidents do not own<\/em><\/em> the nation\u2019s capital, or the White House, but rather are entrusted as temporary custodians. As such, they lack the unilateral authority to destroy, raze or replace core national structures without explicit approval from Congress. \u201cThe White House is the People\u2019s House,\u201d the majority wrote<\/u>, \u201cand under the Constitution\u2019s Property Clause, Congress exercises plenary control over the building and its surrounding land.\u201d Astute readers will note that \u2018Congress\u2019 is not \u2018the president.\u2019 The : \u201cThe White House is owned by the American people and stewarded by the National Park Service. It is more than the President\u2019s residence; it is a site for protests and national discourse about what it means to be American.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump, selling merch and teasing an unconstitutional third run<\/u> in hopes of evading legal accountability<\/u> forever, has made clear that he does not respect national discourse, protests<\/u>, or stewardship, and he does not see his role as temporary. Worse, his obsession with building a nuclear bunker<\/u> to save himself as he threatens the world with tactical nukes<\/u> is ominous.<\/p>\n

How a party palace became a matter of \u201cnational security\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Trump has been yammering for a golden ballroom for over a decade, always framing it as a matter of dignity, aesthetics and design. \u201cIt will be a great legacy project, and I think it will be special,\u201d he announced last July.<\/u> \u201cI think it will be really beautiful.\u201d When he demolished the East Wing<\/u> to make room for it in October, he again described the ballroom solely in terms of taste. He said then, and on many other occasions<\/u>, that it was \u2018unbefitting\u2019 for a nation of the U.S.\u2019s stature to \u2018have to erect temporary tents for large events;\u2019 national security never came up.<\/p>\n

Even after major legal challenges arose in mid-December<\/u>, Trump\u2019s early legal pleadings still brayed about aesthetics and Trump\u2019s need to entertain foreign palm greasers<\/u> in style. As the \u201csole organ of American foreign policy,\u201d Trump\u2019s legal team argued, a president \u201cmust be able to receive ambassadors and other public ministers in an appropriate setting.\u201d<\/p>\n

But as federal courts began in earnest to question his authority<\/u> to build it, Trump started re-marketing his ballroom by finding a new purpose for it. As presented in the WSJ<\/u>, Trump began in January to shift his marketing strategy from aesthetics to national security. By March, Trump was all in on the ballroom\u2019s \u201csecurity upgrades,\u201d which he now claims were \u2018requested\u2019 by \u2018the military.\u2019 Trump\u2019s ballroom is no longer about space, dignity and taste. It\u2019s all about national security<\/u>, an afterthought Trump routinely trots out to defend his many sins.<\/u> <\/p>\n

Another disaster of Trump\u2019s own making<\/strong><\/p>\n

The two-story East Wing of the White House previously held drawing rooms and offices for first ladies and their staffs. In early October of last year, without Congressional approval, without so much as a permit<\/u>, Trump destroyed it. It only took Trump three days to turn 120 years<\/u> of U.S. history into rubble<\/u>, to make way for a party room twice the size of the entire White House. <\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s Supreme Court petition rests on his national security angle, disingenuously re-casting and re-marketing the whole project. U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer now the ballroom is an \u201cintegrated military complex\u201d which is \u201cvitally required by national security.\u201d He argues that halting construction now, to comply with the lower court\u2019s order, would \u201cleave an incomplete structure exposed to the elements, creating a \u2018disaster\u2019 and posing safety risks.\u201d Sauer urges that stopping the project would \u201cput the security of the president and his family at risk and override the advice of the nation’s top military, intelligence and law enforcement officials.\u201d The ballroom, Sauer argues, has moved \u201cbeyond the point of no return.\u201d<\/u> <\/p>\n

Read more Trump\u2019s former lawyer drops chilling prediction for 2026 elections<\/a><\/p>\n

So Trump\u2019s PR strategy for selling his ballroom is now the legal strategy. The \u2018nation’s top military, intelligence and law enforcement officials\u2019 have never asked for a ballroom<\/u>. Rather, as the National Trust for Historic Preservation<\/u> counters, Trump intentionally rushed both demolition and<\/em><\/em> construction as a deliberate strategy meant to outrun judicial oversight. Trump only recently concocted his \u2018national security\u2019 angle to help promote it. <\/p>\n

The public and members of Congress see the ballroom for what it is<\/strong><\/p>\n

When he first demolished the East Wing, Trump claimed that \u201cpresidents had wanted such a ballroom for years<\/u>,\u201d and that \u201csome friends\u201d of his would pay for it. He expected the American public to welcome another \u201cfree gift\u201d from his donors and supplicants<\/u>. They didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

A Washington Post-Ipsos poll<\/u> found that most Americans- roughly 65%- are displeased with Trump’s D.C. building projects, regardless of source of funding. On the ballroom itself, standalone polling shows public opposition by a roughly 2-to-1 margin<\/u>. <\/p>\n

Members of Congress of the lower court\u2019s ruling, reiterating that, \u201cFor over two centuries, the White House has been renovated and maintained pursuant to congressional authorizations and appropriations.\u201d Citing article IV section 3<\/u> of the Constitution, which places authority over federal property squarely with Congress, they urge, \u201cWhereas the President lives in the White House for only a finite period while in office, the Constitution entrusts Congress with making long-term decisions about the \u201cPeople\u2019s House.\u201d <\/p>\n

It\u2019s fitting that Congress, stripped of its authority yet again<\/u> by a lawless strong man, gets the last word here. While Trump is convinced that claiming national security will make the court submit to his will, there \u201cis no national security carveout to Congress\u2019s control over federal property and federal spending.\u201d , the Congressional brief urges that if Trump truly \u201cbelieves national-security concerns require the project, there is a solution: he can bring those concerns to Congress and convince Congress to authorize the project and appropriate the requisite funds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabrina Haake is a political analyst and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. She writes the free Substack, The Haake Take.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more Kushner\u2019s latest slip confirms what MAGA has been dreading<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trump’s audacity is ominous<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5214,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump's sick new delusion is suddenly 'national security' - Next Address America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=5215\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump's sick new delusion is suddenly 'national security' - Next Address America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Trump's audacity is ominous\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=5215\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Next Address America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-23T13:35:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=5215#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=5215\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a4840e0eb2094ec31aed2107d53108b3\"},\"headline\":\"Trump’s sick new delusion is suddenly ‘national security’\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-23T13:35:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=5215\"},\"wordCount\":1105,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=5215#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/347c5b3034b94e19aa9cd54da8ff9ac5.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=5215#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=5215\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=5215\",\"name\":\"Trump's sick new delusion is suddenly 'national security' - 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