{"id":3016,"date":"2026-08-22T16:17:59","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T16:17:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=3016"},"modified":"2026-08-22T16:17:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T16:17:59","slug":"trumps-ballroom-isnt-just-a-farce-anymore-its-a-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=3016","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s Ballroom Isn\u2019t Just a Farce Anymore\u2014It\u2019s a Threat"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><\/div><p><\/p>\n<div xmlns:default=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" id=\"\">\n<div id=\"article-title-block_9dbe651fd7a81e7107d653a6a9d3480e\" class=\"article-title \">\n<div class=\"article-title__container\">\n<div class=\"article-title__eyebrow\">\n                            <span class=\"article-title__labels\"><br \/>\n                                        <span class=\"article-title__label\"><br \/>\n                        <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/subject\/politics\/\">Politics<\/a><br \/>\n                    <\/span><br \/>\n                                                                            <\/span><br \/>\n                                    <span class=\"article-title__label-divider\"> \/ <\/span><br \/>\n                                                                            <span class=\"article-title__date\">August 21, 2026<\/span>\n                                    <\/div>\n<div class=\"acf-innerblocks-container\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-the-nation-dek article-title__dek\">\n<p>In this week\u2019s <em>Elie v. US<\/em>, our justice correspondent explains how the ballroom could gut key environmental protections. Plus, the heartbreak of Jason Arday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<aside aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"ad-block ad siderail-ad float-r-w-3 break-r-4\">\n<p>                                    <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thenation.com\/advertising-policy\" class=\"ad-policy\" target=\"_blank\">Ad Policy<\/a><br \/>\n                                    <\/aside>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==\" fifu-lazy=\"1\" fifu-data-sizes=\"auto\" fifu-data-srcset=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2242325848.jpg?ssl=1&w=75&resize=75&ssl=1 75w, https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2242325848.jpg?ssl=1&w=100&resize=100&ssl=1 100w, https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2242325848.jpg?ssl=1&w=150&resize=150&ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2242325848.jpg?ssl=1&w=240&resize=240&ssl=1 240w, https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2242325848.jpg?ssl=1&w=320&resize=320&ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2242325848.jpg?ssl=1&w=500&resize=500&ssl=1 500w, https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2242325848.jpg?ssl=1&w=640&resize=640&ssl=1 640w, https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2242325848.jpg?ssl=1&w=800&resize=800&ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2242325848.jpg?ssl=1&w=1024&resize=1024&ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2242325848.jpg?ssl=1&w=1280&resize=1280&ssl=1 1280w, https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2242325848.jpg?ssl=1&w=1600&resize=1600&ssl=1 1600w\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1440\" height=\"907\" fifu-data-src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2242325848.jpg?ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-607526\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2242325848.jpg 1440w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2242325848-275x173.jpg 275w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2242325848-768x484.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2242325848-810x510.jpg 810w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2242325848-340x215.jpg 340w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2242325848-168x106.jpg 168w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2242325848-382x240.jpg 382w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2242325848-793x500.jpg 793w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1440px) 100vw, 1440px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Donald Trump holds a rendering of the planned White House Ballroom extension during a meeting with Mark Rutte, secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).<span class=\"credits\">(Aaron Schwartz \/ CNP \/ Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside id=\"aside-block-block_3448cc82a1612a935d786a45a6eee227\" class=\"aside-block  float-l-w-2\">\n    <span style=\"color: #666666; font-size: 28px;\">This is a preview of <\/span><em style=\"box-sizing: inherit; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 \/ 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; color: #666666; font-size: 28px;\">Nation<\/em><span style=\"color: #666666; font-size: 28px;\"> Justice Correspondent Elie Mystal\u2019s weekly newsletter. <\/span><a style=\"box-sizing: inherit; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 \/ 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; font-size: 28px;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/elie\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" aria-label=\"Click here - Link opens in new tab\">Click here<\/a><span style=\"color: #666666; font-size: 28px;\"> to receive this newsletter in your inbox each Friday.<\/span><br \/>\n<\/aside>\n<p class=\"is-style-dropcap\">I\u2019m sorry, but we have to talk about the fucking ballroom. I assure you, I am not happy about this. The world is <em>on fire,<\/em> but I, and now you, need to devote actual mental energy to Donald Trump\u2019s White House play space.<\/p>\n<p>A brief recap for those blissfully unaware of how truly stupid this country has become. Trump tore down the East Wing of the White House without prior authorization from any of the relevant committees. In its place, he plans to erect a gilded ballroom worthy of his fatuous regime. He claims that the ballroom will include an underground security bunker.<\/p>\n<p>The ballroom is flatly illegal. The White House is not Trump\u2019s personal property, and it lies on federal land. Construction is not allowed on federal lands without explicit authorization from Congress, which Trump doesn\u2019t have.<\/p>\n<p>Lower courts have blocked construction of the above-ground portions of the project, but now Trump has appealed those rulings to the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<p>I was prepared to roll my eyes at the whole thing, waiting for the inevitable day when a new Democratic president destroys whatever Trump is able to build. But Ian Millhisier <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/politics\/499692\/supreme-court-trump-ballroom-bye-bye-environment\">actually read the appeal<\/a> and put the fear of God in me. Trump\u2019s case could allow the Supreme Court to gut a key environmental protection, which could then allow Trump and the Republicans to trample all over national parks, national monuments, endangered habitats, and even endangered species.<\/p>\n<p>The issue has to do with what\u2019s known as <em>standing<\/em>, which is the legal jargon for the right to sue. Trump\u2019s ballroom construction was stopped thanks to a lawsuit from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The group sued under a long-standing principle that allows lawsuits from people who intend to \u201cvisit\u201d a site and will find it \u201cless attractive\u201d if alterations proposed by the government or the people running it are allowed to proceed.<\/p>\n<p>It might sound thin, but this is an important way for the public to protect and preserve public parks and monuments. This kind of standing allows regular people to protect things and places that should belong to everybody.<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s appeal directly challenges this kind of standing. If he\u2019s successful, it will strip the public of a key way to enforce historical preservation and environmental protection laws. Trump could, quite literally, emboss his face on Mount Rushmore or turn Yellowstone into a golf course if this kind of standing is not upheld.<\/p>\n<p>The Republicans running the Supreme Court have shown a deep antipathy toward both environmental protection and the ability of citizens to sue to stop the government.<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s ballroom could easily turn into a national environmental disaster. And, as with everything the Trump administration does, the Supreme Court appears eager to help with the destruction.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Bad and the Ugly<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In other terrible environmental news, the Trump administration has authorized the sale of a 31 million\u2013acre tract of seafloor off American Samoa for deep-sea oil mining. The planned sale, which represents yet another depressing first (the first time this country has opened its waters for deep-sea plunder), threatens the precious and vulnerable ecosystem off the Rose Atoll. The administration is<a href=\"https:\/\/www.courthousenews.com\/environmentalists-aim-to-halt-first-ever-us-deep-sea-mining-sale\/\"> being sued<\/a>, for now, by various conservation groups.<\/li>\n<li>Moving on to Trump\u2019s abiding stupidity and incompetence, it turns out the National Park Service <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/justice-department\/trump-administration-was-warned-peeling-reflecting-pool-nearly-month-b-rcna593390\">warned the Trump administration<\/a> that the Reflecting Pool was peeling long before the administration launched its baseless vandalism case against innocent people.<\/li>\n<li>Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is suing Texas Governor Greg Abbott to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/minnesota-attorney-general-sues-texas-governor-compel-extradition-ice-rcna593154\">extradite<\/a> an ICE agent who assaulted a man in Minnesota. Yes, we live in a world where criminal ICE agents can flee to Texas to escape legal consequences for their actions, because Texas is essentially a rogue state that provides refuge to paramilitary sadists.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Meanwhile, ICE is now offering <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/ice-pitches-legal-insurance-help-shield-local-officers-make-immigratio-rcna593091\">legal liability insurance<\/a> to its people so they can, you know, violate people\u2019s constitutional rights without breaking the bank.<\/li>\n<li>Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.courthousenews.com\/after-uproar-lapd-officer-avoids-criminal-charges-for-exposing-cops-racist-chatter\/\">reduced the charges<\/a> against a whistleblower cop who recorded his fellow officers making racial, ethnic, sexist, and homophobic slurs. <em>Technically<\/em>, recording people without their consent is illegal in California but\u2026 I think Hochman completely missed the point of these recordings. No word on whether he is going to do anything to the cops who were recorded calling women \u201crapeable,\u201d among other horrors, or investigate them to see if their words were ever translated into criminal malfeasance or abuse.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Inspired Takes<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>I saw Christopher Nolan\u2019s <em>Odyssey<\/em>. I really liked it. <em>The Nation<\/em>\u2019s Katha Pollitt saw it. She <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/culture\/odyssey-review-katha-pollitt\/\">didn\u2019t like it as much<\/a>. Thing is, I agree with almost all of Pollitt\u2019s criticisms. It\u2019s just that none of these problems ruined my enjoyment of the movie. In related news, I understand and appreciate all the scientific criticism leveled at <em>Project Hail Mary<\/em>, and, similarly, do not give a shit about those criticisms and think it was a great movie. I also like all the <em>Jurassic Park<\/em> movies, even the objectively terrible ones. Maybe I should start my own movie review column called \u201cActually, It\u2019s Fine.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>In <em>Talking Points Mem<\/em>o, Madiba Dennie <a href=\"https:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/cafe\/how-the-supreme-court-kicked-off-americas-sports-betting-addiction-crisis\">explains<\/a> how the Supreme Court is primarily responsible for the epidemic of sports betting in this country, thanks to its ruling in <em>Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association<\/em>. That case is an intellectual sore spot for me, because I remember agreeing with the court in real time and telling people who said that it would lead to an explosion of sports betting that they were being hysterical because the sports leagues themselves would never allow it. So, you know, I was very, very wrong.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Worst Argument of the Week<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I was today-years-old when I learned that major international airports across the country have small washing stations to allow Muslim travelers to perform <em>wudu<\/em>, or wash their feet, hands, and arms in preparation for their five daily prayers. I think that\u2019s neat. I tend to think of the airline industry as the industry that\u2019s most openly hostile to its own customers, so learning about this small acknowledgement of the needs of millions gave me a fleeting sense of hope.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFleeting,\u201d of course, because I learned about the washing stations\u2019 existence only in the context of Christofascist bigots\u2019 attempt to take them away. Texas Governor Greg Abbott <a href=\"https:\/\/gov.texas.gov\/news\/post\/governor-abbott-directs-review-of-airports-over-illegal-religious-discrimination\">sent a letter <\/a>last week to the heads of the Houston and Dallas airports <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/nation\/2026\/08\/20\/fight-over-airport-washing-stations-is-latest-anti-muslim-salvo-gop\/\">declaring that the washrooms<\/a> are discriminatory to everyone else and threatening to revoke their state grant funds.<\/p>\n<p>It is a risible argument. Having a washroom designed to aid in a religious practice is not discriminatory toward other religions. That\u2019s like saying having a kosher food option is discriminatory toward people who don\u2019t keep kosher. Or having fish on a Friday menu is discriminatory toward people who aren\u2019t Catholic. If anything, <em>not<\/em> having the washroom is a discriminatory attack on the free exercise of the religion of the people who need it.<\/p>\n<p>What makes Abbott\u2019s attack truly hypocritical is that\u2026 we\u2019re talking about Greg Abbott here. We\u2019re talking about a guy who is trying to force public schools to display the Ten Commandment in every classroom in his state. This is a guy who uses religious beliefs as an excuse to set bounty hunts on people fleeing his state\u2019s clutches to get an abortion. Greg Abbott has long since blown past the free exercise of religion to arrive squarely at the unconstitutional imposition of one religion, his, above all others.<\/p>\n<p>Alas, this doesn\u2019t make him all that unusual. What Abbot is doing is straight-up bigoted, but it\u2019s also perfectly in keeping with the rise and ongoing march of Christofascism. These people want to force the rest of us to live in a Christian theocracy.<\/p>\n<p>In such a world, any acknowledgement or accommodation to another religion is seen as an attack on the majority faith. It is the worst kind of argument, but one that the bad guys always make.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What I Wrote<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Trump is trying to change the Census. Again. This time he\u2019s planning new tricks to undercount non-white people, locking in a warped view of America until 2040. I wrote about how <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/politics\/trump-census-citizenship-question\/\">Democrats must stop him<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>In News Unrelated to the Current Chaos<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Jason Arday, the youngest-ever Black professor at Cambridge University, was found dead this week at the age of 41. There\u2019s no apparent foul play. Arday left his post at Cambridge following a \u201cplagiarism scandal,\u201d but I put that phrase in scare quotes because it seems like the allegations amounted to a few missed citations. Nonetheless, the man was hounded, disgraced, lost his job, and is now dead.<\/p>\n<p>All I can say is, \u201cThere but for the grace of God go I.\u201d The reality of being a Black public intellectual is that your credentials and intellect are constantly questioned by whites. There is no margin for error. You will not be allowed to recover from mistakes, and so you just can\u2019t make them. You will not be allowed to fail up, you will just be pushed face down in the muck.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s\u2026 a certain kind of pressure. I don\u2019t know how Arday dealt with it. I don\u2019t know how any of us deal with it. I drink, to be honest. And I content myself with the knowledge that the anonymous portions of my life\u2014my family, my video games, my sportsball teams\u2014provide me with enough satisfaction that white people can take everything else away from me, and I\u2019ll still be happy. I even have an outline for the novel I\u2019ll write under a pen name when whites cancel me for whatever.<\/p>\n<p>In <em>The Nation<\/em>, Jafari Sinclaire Allen writes about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/society\/reckoning-jason-arday-death\/\">the machine that came for Arday<\/a>, and comes for all of us. My only message to young Black writers and thinkers is to train yourself to never want something that only the white man can give. Because once they figure that out, they\u2019ll make you a slave to it, or take it away.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s of course, easier said than done. I have a cross-stitch in my office that reads, \u201cDon\u2019t let these white people make you stroke out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">***<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\"><em>If you enjoyed this installment of\u00a0<\/em>Elie v. U.S<em>.,\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/elie\/\"><em>click here<\/em><\/a><em>\u00a0to receive the newsletter in your inbox each Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n<div xmlns:default=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" id=\"article-end-\" class=\"article-end \">\n<div class=\"article-end__authors\">\n<div class=\"article-end__author\">\n<h5 class=\"article-end__author-name\">\n                        <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/authors\/elie-mystal\/\">Elie Mystal<\/a><br \/>\n                    <\/h5>\n<p>                                            <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ElieNYC\" class=\"article-end__author-twitter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><br \/>\n                            <default:svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"17\" height=\"14\" viewbox=\"0 0 17 14\" fill=\"none\"><br \/>\n\t<default:path fill-rule=\"evenodd\" clip-rule=\"evenodd\" d=\"M15.2054 3.54558C15.2122 3.6951 15.215 3.84463 15.215 3.99527C15.215 8.58792 11.7194 13.8834 5.32683 13.8834C3.36455 13.8834 1.53779 13.3083 0 12.3221C0.271606 12.354 0.548252 12.3702 0.828257 12.3702C2.45677 12.3702 3.95536 11.8147 5.14483 10.8829C3.62384 10.8543 2.34085 9.84963 1.89844 8.4692C2.11068 8.51008 2.32797 8.53136 2.55253 8.53136C2.87006 8.53136 3.17695 8.48936 3.46815 8.40984C1.87772 8.09008 0.680414 6.68501 0.680414 5.00273C0.680414 4.98705 0.680414 4.97305 0.680414 4.95793C1.14858 5.21833 1.68452 5.37514 2.25461 5.39362C1.32219 4.76921 0.708415 3.7063 0.708415 2.5006C0.708415 1.8633 0.879778 1.26633 1.17882 0.753361C2.89302 2.85621 5.45395 4.23887 8.34249 4.38392C8.28313 4.12967 8.25233 3.86423 8.25233 3.59206C8.25233 1.6729 9.80861 0.117188 11.7278 0.117188C12.7274 0.117188 13.6301 0.539436 14.2641 1.21425C15.0559 1.05913 15.8002 0.769041 16.4716 0.370873C16.2118 1.18289 15.6602 1.86386 14.9428 2.29395C15.6462 2.20939 16.3159 2.02235 16.9392 1.74626C16.4739 2.44292 15.8842 3.05557 15.2054 3.54558Z\" fill=\"#666666\"\/><br \/>\n<\/default:svg><br \/>\n                        <\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-end__author-bio\">\n<p>Elie Mystal is\u00a0<em>The Nation<\/em>\u2019s justice correspondent and a columnist. He is also an Alfred Knobler Fellow at the Type Media Center. He is the author of two books: the <em>New York Times<\/em> bestseller <a href=\"https:\/\/thenewpress.com\/books\/allow-me-retort\"><em>Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy\u2019s Guide to the Constitution<\/em><\/a> and <em>Bad Law: Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining America<\/em>, both published by The New Press. You can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/elie\/\">subscribe to his <em>Nation<\/em> newsletter <em>Elie v. U.S.<\/em>\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script type=\"c431c33b6dbb815df030d3be-text\/javascript\">\n\t\t!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n\t\t{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n\t\tn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n\t\tif(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n\t\tn.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n\t\tt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n\t\ts.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,document,'script', 'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n\t\tfbq('init', '233793277040432');\n\t\tfbq('track', 'PageView');\n\t\t\t\t<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Politics \/ August 21, 2026 In this week\u2019s Elie v. US, our justice correspondent explains how the ballroom could gut key environmental protections. Plus, the heartbreak of Jason Arday. Ad Policy Donald Trump holds a rendering of the planned White House Ballroom extension during a meeting with Mark Rutte, secretary general of the North Atlantic&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[4930,3983,4929,1493,2194,457],"class_list":["post-3016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-anymoreits","tag-ballroom","tag-farce","tag-isnt","tag-threat","tag-trumps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}