Court Watch, Part IV.

Weston County, Wyoming, courthouse.

The Justice Department has sued California to block new congressional district boundaries approved by California voters last week.

It's leaving the Texas crap districts alone, however.

In Utah, a Court blocked an effort to prevent their new commission designed districts, which features, gasp, a Democratic seat.

Cont:

Trump ordered the Justice Department to investigate links Jeffrey Epstein had to prominent Democrats and institutions including former President Bill Clinton and former treasury secretary, Larry Summers. Read as he bounces off the wall in panic like a grade school dodge ball.  Bondi, of course, a loyal sycophant, appointed a prosecutor.

November 15, 2025

Weston County Clerk In Court, Pleads Not Guilty To Ignoring Legislative Subpoena

Wyoming Supreme Court Pauses Judge's Order For More School Counselors, Computers

 November 17, 2025

* * *

The judge is clearly signaling that this case is well on the way towards being dismissed.

November 18, 2025

A Federal Court in Texas has blocked the state from using its recently redrawn Congressional District map.

Oops.

This will be appealed, but if the decision is upheld it would mean that the five GOP (probably) seats that the state added won't be, while California, in a recent election, added five.

Oops.

Additionally, early indicators are that Texas Hispanics are following the national tread and are becoming disenchanted with the GOP, so some Texas districts may swing Democratic on their own.

Oops.

All of this could mean that the 2026 election could see the House not only swing Democratic, but perhaps massively so, and that some of the Returning Republicans are no longer big fans of Trump, to which those survivors will be reassessing their loyalty to Trump.

November 21, 2015

Sen. Elissa Slotkin, Sen. Mark Kelly, and Reps. Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander and Chrissy Houlahan, all veterans, released  a video urging member of the armed forces not to follow illegal orders.  Donald Trump is now threatening them with prosecution for sedition, and the death penalty, which is ironic, as Trump is a seditionist.

A Federal Court ordered the illegal Trump deployment of National Guardsmen to Washington D.C. to come to an end.

November 24, 2025

The North Dakota Supreme Court upheld the state's abortion ban, causing abortion to again become illegal in the state.

cont:

Federal criminal indictments against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James were dismissed after a finding the prosecutor was not lawfully appointed.

December 3, 2025

Rasner’s Defamation Case Against Bouchard Survives First Hurdle

Two well known names from the state's Republican politics.

December 4, 2025

Family of Colombian man killed in U.S. strike files human rights challenge

December 5, 2025

Headline in CST:

Court allows Texas maps

A Federal grand jury declined to indict New York Attorney General Letitia James on mortgage fraud.

December 12, 2025

The DOJ failed a second time to indict Letitia James

cont:

The National Trust for Historic Preservation has sued to stop construction of the giant White House ballroom.

December 16, 2025

Weston County Clerk Says Legislators Broke Law By Issuing Subpoena

December 17, 2025

Jack Smith tells lawmakers his team developed ‘proof beyond a reasonable doubt’ against Trump

December 18, 2025

Platte County Complaint Against Commissioners Contain False Claims

December 29, 20205

Wyoming AG Appeals Wind Lease Ruling As Gordon, Gray Clash Over Decision

Sued For Defamation, Former State Senator Says WyoFile Should Be Sued Too  

December 31, 2025

Deposition testimony of Jack Smith.

From the deposition:

President Trump was by a large measure the most culpable and most responsible person in this conspiracy. These crimes were committed for his benefit. The attack that happened at the Capitol…does not happen without him.

January 6, 2026

The big news, of course, is that an illegitimate foreign head of state has been indicted in the United States brought here in a raid by an illegitimate head of state who has experience with the criminal justice system himself.

Total bogosity.

In other news, and in more bogosity of a sorts, the National Rifle Association is suing the NRA Foundation, a trust that benefits the NRA in what partially can be attributed to an ongoing inter NRA feud.

That things were going wrong at the NRA was pretty evident for quite some time.  Things are still going wrong at the NRA.  The organization was run for decades by Wayne LaPierre who followed in the footsteps of Haron Carter in fundamentally changing the organization.

Carter rose to power in the organization in 1977.  Prior to that date the organization had been agnostic on gun control. Following that it moved to being an ardent opponent.

It was under Wayne LaPierre, however, that the organization became radical, frequently using extreme claims to raise funds.  His personal life a bit of a mystery, but he was undoubtedly successful in building up the NRA which became effectively a fundraising arm of the Republican Party, which it remains in spite of LaPierre's fall in a corruption trial.  While LaPierre is gone, the current NRA maintains the script, even though its numbers are falling dramatically off.  It will, for instance, no longer issue a print edition of the American Rifleman starting this year.

What exactly this trial entials I don't know.  It'll be interesting to watch.  It's already accused the Foundation of being run by the disgruntled.

At any rate, while NRA concerns about gun control were well placed into the 1990s, the supposed threats they posed were really waning by late in that decade and the organization has been crying wolf for years.  Gun owners know that and have been dropping out of it, tired of the message that Stalingrad is right around the corner.  Moderate Republicans who are horrified by Trump have not been impressed with NRA's ongoing drumbeat for him.  The LaPierre tactics that lead to its rise, and fall, foreshadowed the rise and tactics of MAGA to some degree, and like a lot of things touched by Trump, the organization appears to be dying.  In recent years, it's support for Trump have lead to claims of hypocrisy by some on the left.

A sad thing is that the NRA really does do some very important firearms work.  It supports shooting programs, matches and range safety in a major way.  There's nothing to replace it in these areas.

January 8, 2026

Wyoming Attorney General To Ask For One Last Chance To Defend Abortion Bans

Last edition:

Court Watch, Part III.

Labels: 2020s, 2025, 2025 White House Vandalization, California (Los Angeles), California National Guard, Court, Court Watch, The Second Trump Administration, transgenderism, University of Wyoming, Wyoming (Glenrock)

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 110th Edition. Ballooning ballrooms and murder on the sea.

The Autocrat and the Architect.

Reports are leaking out that Trump's architect and Trump are now at odds over the ever expanding ballroom, with McCreey having told Trump that the building, which now will hold over 1,000 people, is getting too big and is going to engulf the White House itself.  McCreery is no longer taking a day to day role in the vandalization.

It frankly is looking more and more like this project will never get built.  Trump's dementia is racing through his cerebellum now and the clock on his illegitimate occupancy of the Presidency is likely winding down.

The ballroom, which nobody other than Trump wants, and has not been wanted for 150 years like Trump likes to claim, is a major focus for Trump.  He's desperately looking for a physical monument to himself.

Looking for somebody to blame for murder.

Over the last few days, since the Washington Post broke the news that survivors of the first illegal Venezuelan boat sinking were subsequently murdered on the water, the Trump administration has been bouncing off the walls to get ahead of the story.

On the Weekend shows, Noem slandered the newspaper, saying she wouldn't believe the story.  Since then it's gone from Hegseth ordered everyone killed, but that was before the first illegal act, and the Navy commander of the operation acted independently, apparently interpreting his orders in that fashion.

The irony is that, of course, the same group of people were having a fit about a collection of Senators who are veterans urging service members not to follow illegal orders.  Now it turns out that a major illegal order was just given.  In fact, the entire boat sinking campaign off of Venezuela is illegal, so the first strike was itself murder.  Killing the survivors is definitely illegal.

Gray complaining about Gordon.

Chuck Gray is complaining about the Governor not granting him extra money to publicize a moronic initiative to completely destroy the state's finances by cutting property taxes 50%.  

Gray will take off before the chickens ever come home to roost on this.  He's still aligned with the Freedom Caucus but it's pretty this legislative session, where they are going to loom large, is going to be their high water mark.  Gray wants to be governor, but he's not going to get that position.  I'd guess that Barlow will, although its quite early.  When that effort fails, Gray might take a run at the Senate, if he's still around, and then depart, or just depart.

Postscript:

The official position is that the Admiral in charge of the operation ordered the second strike, with Hegseth saying he had left by the time it occurred.  He also cited the fog of war as the reason for the killing, which would presuppose there being a war, which there isn't.

Last edition:

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 109th Edition. Lost love. Painting Targets. Piggy. Articles of Surrender. Voting in opposition of something that isn't going on.

Labels: 2020s, 2025, Charlie Kirk, Chuck Gray, Communism, Donald Trump, Francois Mitterrand, law, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Mental Health, Misogyny, Politics, Russia, Russo Ukrainian War, Socialism, Turning Point USA, Zeitgeist

White House Hall of Shame.

A new list of the entities supporting the vandalization of the White House has been released by its illegitimate occupant, although the list is still incomplete.

Amazon:

Apple: 

HP: 

Meta: 

Micron Technology: 

Palantir Technologies: 

Coinbase: 

Ripple: 

Tether: 

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss: 

Caterpillar: 

NextEra Energy: 

Paolo Tiramani: 

Union Pacific: 

Adelson Family Foundation: 

Betty Wold Johnson Foundation: 

Laura & Isaac Perlmutter Foundation: 

Benjamin Leon Jr.: 

Kelly Loeffler and Jeffrey Sprecher: 

Lutnick family: Howard Lutnick is Trump’s commerce secretary.

Comcast:

Discovery.

Hard Rock International:

T-Mobile: 

Altria Group: 

Booz Allen Hamilton: 

Stefan E. Brodie: 

J. Pepe and Emilia Fanjul: 

Edward and Shari Glazer: 

Harold Hamm: 

Stephen A. Schwarzman: 

Konstantin Sokolov: 

Court Watch, Part III.

This is the U.S. Federal Building & Courthouse in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  This building, built in 1960s, is s survivor of the brutal domestic terrorist attack that wrecked the Murrah building that was across from it.  A memorial to the victims of that attack is now located there, across from the courthouse.

Oklahoma City U.S. Federal Building & Courthouse, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  Bombed by a guy whose views were regarded as extreme at the time, but which would be regarded as solidly MAGA today.

August 27, 2025

The Trump Administration's moronic lawsuit against Maryland's Federal Bench was tossed out.

There's no surprise to this at all.

On a locally controversial matter:

University of Wyoming sorority free to admit who it wants, including transgender students, judge rules: The 2023 federal complaint against Kappa Kappa Gamma for welcoming a transgender woman was dismissed Friday for the second time.

This puts the Wyoming Federal Court basically at odds with the direction of the Trump Administration as well. 

August 30, 2025

Judge Awards Nearly $1 Billion To Rock Springs Family Over Botched Baby Delivery

Well, there's absolutely no surprise.  Trump's illegal tariffs were affirmed to be illegal.

D'uh.

The Court's decision starts:

The Government appeals a decision of the Court of International Trade setting aside five Executive Orders that imposed tariffs of unlimited duration on nearly all goods from nearly every country in the world, holding that the tariffs were not authorized by the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), 50 U.S.C. § 1701 et seq. Because we agree that IEEPA’s grant of presidential authority to “regulate” imports does not authorize the tariffs imposed by the Executive Orders, we affirm.

Even here, however, the Court granted a stay of thirty days on the implementation of its order, which a private litigant would be unlikely to have received, and the government shouldn't have received here.  The order should have gone into effect immediately absent the government posting a bond to cover the damages, which would be all the tariffs collected while the matter was on appeal, and all that it has already collected, which should need to be fully refunded.

But a refund won't happen and the implementation of the ruling is delayed by 30 days, so the government can appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which doesn't actually have to take the appeal.

Whether the S.Ct upholds it, or proves to be a pure political arm of the government, is another matter.

There were three dissents in the en banc decision.

September 3, 2025

A Federal Court has ruled Trump's deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles to be illegal.

September 17, 2025

Wyoming Sorority Members Not Giving Up Legal Case Over Transgender Member

September 26, 2025

In an act that's outrageous, former FBI Director James Comey has been indicted by a grand jury on two out of the three charges the government brought before it.

The Trump administration, and hence the Republican Party, has gone over to outright fascism with acts of this type.   The test now is whether the Courts can withstand the onslaught.  

October 1, 2025

Judge Says Ousted UW Dean Can Keep Suing For ‘Retaliation’ Demotion

October 13, 2025

In addition to Comey, now Letitia James has been indicted.  More such indictments are apparently coming.

Trump's efforts to deploy the National Guard into cities is universally failing in the Courts.

Comey is being prosecuted for lying to Congress, which Pam Bondi just did herself.

October 16, 2025

And now John Bolton has been charged with eight counts of unlawful transmission of national defense information and 10 counts of unlawful retention of national defense information by a grand jury.

The Department of Justice has become a department of persecution for Trump.  It'll take years to undo the damage that has been done.  Moreover, because of the extent of this, it's my prediction that many who are now involved in these Trump efforts will face bar sanctions, and likely some prosecutions, in the future.

October 17, 2025

An Illinois court ordered ICE agents to wear body cameras.

October 25, 2025

Way milder than it could have been, but at least somebody tried to do something:

If the TRO is granted, construction will stop, but I would have asked for the structure to have been returned to the status quo ante.

October 29, 2025

$350M Lawsuit Over Banking Trade Secrets Names Town Of Glenrock And Mayor 

November 10, 2025

The Supreme Court rejected a petition for a writ of certiorari by a court clerk which would have presented an opportunity to overrule Obergefell.

Last edition

Court Watch, Part II.

Labels: 2020s, 2025, Animals, California, Court, Court Watch, Crime, election, Epstein Scandal, law, National Guard, Public Land, Texas, Washington DC, Wyoming, Wyoming (Sublette County)

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 107th Edition. Tacky Crap, Delusion, and the Sgt. Schultz defense.

The House of the Rising Sun 

Lex Anteinternet: Gilded Age Brothel School of Interior Design: 

Gilded Age Brothel School of Interior Design

Nuclear weapons should not be entrusted to anyone pleased by Trump’s Gilded Age Brothel school of interior design.

George F. Will.

Trump has now put a gold lettered sign outside the Oval Office which says "The Oval Office".

This has, of course, sparked derision, as its stupid.  The question is, however, does Trump not realize that all the tacky gold crap is going in the dumpster just as soon as he's gone?  He probably actually doesn't.

"I know nothing".

Mike Johnson hasn't seen it.  Whatever it is, he hasn't seen that.  

Poor Mike, knowing nothing is his only defense.

Freak Out!

At least based on Twitter, which isn't a good place to actually judge how people feel, MAGAs are freaking out about the election results, as in "it means nothing at all it isn't donny's fault he wasn't on the ballot and people love him groceries are now free and Saudi chicks have a lot of money and everything is fine and new york will be sorry as they elected an Islamic commie I'l ltell my ma when Iget home the girls won't leave the boys alone. . . 

Get a grip.

Well, actually don't.  The results do mean something and you took a dope slap.

Last edition:

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 106th Edition A series of Zeitgeist predictions about New York City.

Labels: 2025 Off Year U.S. Elections, Donald Trump, Mike Johnson, New York, Politics, Predictions, Republican Party, Social Democracy, Socialism, Zeitgeist, Zohran Mamdani

Arches.

Sigh. . . 

White House fires arts commission expected to review Trump construction projects

The move comes as President Donald Trump pursues efforts to build a White House ballroom and a triumphal arch in Washington.

So, if you've been distracted or are just sick of reading stories about the toddler in the White House, here's what this is about:

What we know about White House plans for an 'Arc de Trump'

The BBC article discounts Trump's ability to get this thing built, but that was penned before Trump showed that he'll just ignore the law in this area, as with everything else.

The United States needs a triumphal arch about as much as it needs to build its own version fo the Brandenburg Gate, which we should have blown to bit at the end of World War Two.  At least its not as butt ugly as McCreery's gigantic garden shed that will be a temporary "ballroom" attached to the White House.  That will get partially constructed and then ripped down, to be followed soon after by:

Did you work on illegal White House construction projects?  You were likely exposed to asbestos and should sue the ass of off Donald Trump, call . . . 

Anyhow, Triumphal Arches date back at least to the Romans, and they're particularly associated with them.  The gigantic one in Paris, the Arch de Triomphe, we can blame on Napoleon whom, we should remember was deposed by a coalition of non wacky powers in the 19th Century and sent to die on Elba, where he was likely poisoned.

Triumphal Arches have been emulated ever since the Romans built them, and they appear in many countries.  They are particularly associated with autocratic powers, which suffer from knowing they aren't worthy and therefore try to monument themselves into worthiness, but there are some in democratic states including in the U.S.

There's probably a smaller chance that construction gets started on this before Trump leaves office or collapse in his Happy Meal while babbling, but again, getting it rolling wouldn't be too surprising.  Keeping it up? That's another matter.

I give the White House Garden Shed about an 80% chance of being torn down.  If an arch goes up, I'd give it about a 40% chance.

The Agrarian's Lament: Lex Anteinternet: An East Wing Post Mortem. An East Wing Post Mortem. Outrage over our Gilded Overlords.

The Agrarian's Lament: Lex Anteinternet: An East Wing Post Mortem. Outra...: 

Lex Anteinternet: An East Wing Post Mortem. Outrage over our Gilded Overlords.

I've posted a fair amount on this story. 

Lex Anteinternet: An East Wing Post Mortem.:   Comparative air photos posted by CBS News. Put up under commentary and fair use exception. I've never seen the East Wing of the White ...

One of my old friends, whose become a hardcore right wing populist, while also interestingly being a hardcore corner crossing advocate (the two are in fact mutually exclusive), posted this on his Facebook feed:

The President, and "your President" decides to renovate the Whitehouse, with donations and on his own dime mind you, and he is “Destroying Democracy?” Some of your hypocrisy cancels your outrage. I’m so sick of this crap. It’s just another reminder that the other side has nothing to offer Americans other that staged outrage over bull. TDS much??

Some on the far right have completely swallowed that this is "staged outrage".  The irony is that the exact same people were outraged about everything that Joe Biden did, and Barack Obama did.  Some of that outrage was because they were told to be.

And here's the next thing. The ballroom is probably not going to be completed before Trump leaves office.  Frankly, as the matter is now in litigation, there's going to be some delay.  If a judge is really upset, which is unlikely due to the way courts work, there's precedent for returning the structure ot the status quo ante before anything goes forward, which would in and of itself likely take years.

That's unlikely of course, but there's going to be a district court ruling and then an appeals court ruling. All that will take six months on a project that would normally take several years to complete.

But that's not the point.

The next President, unless its J. D. Vance, is going to take this down, it it gets built  If its a Republican like Thomas Massie it'll gleefully be torn down.  If its a Democrat, it's also coming down.

Let's make it clear.

The ballroom, if its built, or however much of it that's built, will be taken down and erased from the public memory.

At that point in time, will those who support Trump in whatever he does state: The President, and "your President" decides to renovate the Whitehouse, with donations and on his own dime mind you, and he is “Destroying Democracy?”

Not hardly, even if no public funds are then used.  They'll be outraged about how its "destroying" the legacy of a "great" president.

So why does this bother me?

Well in part because I'm an agrarian and this entire project is an insult to agrarians.

Ballrooms are the high school basketball courts of the super wealthy  A place where the extremely wealthy can meet and mingle and do those things Trump noted, have drinks in the foyer, etc.  The kind of place where you can talk shop and meet with the rich and powerful, and heads of state.  Maybe have the Saudi king over, or rub elbows with guests like Prince William. . . or maybe Harry and Jeff Epstein.  It's a public building, no matter whose tribute is used to pay for it, but you can't book your wedding reception of bar mitzvah reception there.

Because you are a peasant.

The entire concept of a massive ornate public building like this is that you peons will love it because you love to bask in the glory of your benighted leaders.  And those benighted leaders, having been born into wealth, really believe that.  You love them as they love themselves, and you are happy to serve the glorious benighted.

That's the antithesis of the American concept.

Here's what the White House grounds should return to, and I'm not joking.

The West Wing also dates back to TR's time in the White House with the construction of what was supposed to be a temporary structure.  That structure was expanded in 1909 and ultimately came to be the White House office space.  I don't doubt that they need office space, but as noted, maybe it can just be somewhere else.

And in fact, for the most part, it should be.

Taft family milk cow Pauline Wayne, one of two milk cows the Tafts kept and allowed to freely roam the White House grounds. What is now known as the Eisenhower building is in the background.  This is as things should be.

Sometime last week I was somehow the recipient of a real estate brochure entitled "Land".

I didn't get around to looking at it until today, even though I knew what it was going to be.  Agricultural land turned into the playgrounds of the rich.

That should end.  People who hold agricultural ground, or even large blocks of ground, should have to make their livings from it and nothing else.  The wealthy holding such ground hurts those who would make a living in this simple manner.

We live in a new Gilded Age.  That age gave rise to the Progressive movement and swept into office people like Theodore Roosevelt.  Something like that needs to happen again.

Yes, I'm outraged over the East Wing coming down for a ballroom, and the very concept of a ballroom outrages me.  I'm outraged that common people have fallen for outright lies and believe everything Donald Trump tells them.  I'm outraged that the extremely wealthy are running the show on everything while, at the same time, our Gilded masters tell us to hate the poorest of the poor.  I'm outraged that Congress will not do its job.  I'm outraged that our military is being ordered to murder people in the Caribbean.  And I"m outraged that our local politicians tell us to support this crap when they do so, in at least 2/3s of the instances, as it keeps them in their elected jobs.

An East Wing Post Mortem.

 

Comparative air photos posted by CBS News. Put up under commentary and fair use exception.

I've never seen the East Wing of the White House, and of course, now, I never will.  I have very little, as in no, interest in touring Washington D.C. and  have even less interest than that now that the illegitimate Trump gang of insurrectionist is occupying the nation's capital.  

This has been a very revealing series of events however, and we can take some things away from it.

The first thing we have learned is how utterly desperate Donald Trump is to amount to something.  He started too late in life and his character is too fixed in order to achieve that, absent late in life inspiration of an existential type which would require him to make a profound change in his behavior.  Born into wealth and a playboy by character, he's desperately trying to buy and build himself into seriousness and relevance.  In the back of his mind, or frankly maybe in the forefront, he knows that he's a fart in a windstorm.  After he's out of office, and no amount of far right fantasizing is going to keep him there, his successor, right or left, will begin the process of trying to repair the damage Trump has done.  If its a right wing leader, like wannabe NatCon J. D. Vance, it'll be National Conservative far right, but less insane than Trump.  It probably won't be Vance however, but somebody from the political center, particularly if the Democrats get their act together and dump their own wackadoodle far left, which there are signs they will, or from the actual libertarian populist right.

My prediction, early though it is, is that the next President will be Tammy Duckworth, maybe on a Duckworth Klobuchar ticket.  I can see, however, Thomas Massie and Rand Paul taking a run at Vance's dreams and keeping them from happening.

Vance would keep the Trump monument to himself up and pretend to like it, as he only is where he is now due to Trump, but as soon as somebody who wasn't a Trump sycophant is in the Oval Office, it's coming down.  That will be symbolic of the entire Trump legacy, destruction that will ultimately come down, and have to be rebuilt.

Trump want to see himself as a great man, a sort of Napoleon being crowned, but knows that he's more like Napoleon on Elba.  He's not going to get there.  He's really extremely pathetic.

Also sad is the degree to which it has been demonstrated that a life of extreme wealth is corrosive.  Trump's entire life of largess already showed this, but he really does believe that the White House needs a huge overblown rushed ballroom as he's seen those of failed monarchies in Europe.  The republics, or in one case dictatorship, that inherited that stuff still uses it as it's a human instinct not to rip things down.  That's why the Brandenburg Gate, which should have been blown to rubble in 1945, is still standing.  Yes, it's a monument to German militarism, but it's big and already there so we keep it around.  That's the reason the Eiffel Tower is there, even though its a giant ugly radio tower, or why the "egg beater" thing in Casper Wyoming is still there.  We just can't bring ourselves to rip things down, no matter hideos they are, or how symbolically problematic.

The egg beater in Casper Wyoming.  It's ugly.

This will come down.

It'll come down in part as it just won't work with an 18th Century large house built on a budget.  It wasn't constructed to be a palace, but just a big house.

Which brings me to my next point.

Perhaps the West Wing, after actually going through the proper process, ought to be taken out as well.

No attachments to the structure are really consistent with its original concept.  It isn't supposed to have a lot of offices and the entire concept of the First Lady needing room for anything is absurd.  The First Lady is simply the President's wife, or Trump's case in regard to the monarchical role to which he aspires, the current concubine, or in the American Civil Religion context, his current wife. 

Maybe it ought to be just scaled back to its original footprint.

Some would object that that would mean that it wouldn't have enough room for its purpose Well, No. 10 Downing Street has less room than the White House.  And if more space is really needed, they can find it somewhere else in Washington D.C.  Nixon actually did that with the nearby Eisenhower Building.

The White House in 1846, when it was first photographed.

Restoring the White House back to scale would also be symbolic.  The entire office of the Presidency needs to be restored to scale.  Right now, Trump is in fact ruling as a dictator, with the complicitly of the Dixiecrat Party that has taken over the GOP.  That needs to end, and end to an enormous degree.

The drift towards an imperial presidency started with Theodore Roosevelt, who is a person I admire, but whom I admire more than I once did.  TR, like Trump, tended to act unilaterally, the difference being that Roosevelt was a profoundly intelligent and moral man, where as the opposite is true of Trump.  The East Wing started off in his administration as the fairly modest East Terrace, which looked nice and wasn't an overblown Sun King structure like the proposed ballroom will be, but it nonetheless got the modification trend rolling.

It would be TR's cousin Franklin that really got the modern Presidency established, however, and that due to the emergency of the Great Depression and World War Two.  Franklin Roosevelt did not rule as a dictator, although people liked to accuse him of that at the time.  Ironically, a President that the Republicans hate to this very day is the one, in some ways, that Trump has tried to emulate, even to the extent of wishing for a third term, which he cannot legally occupy.  Franklin, of course, redid the East Wing, which was done in part due to the bomb shelter that was constructed underneath  it.

The West Wing also dates back to TR's time in the White House with the construction of what was supposed to be a temporary structure.  That structure was expanded in 1909 and ultimately came to be the White House office space.  I don't doubt that they need office space, but as noted, maybe it can just be somewhere else.

And in fact, for the most part, it should be.

Taft family milk cow Pauline Wayne, one of two milk cows the Tafts kept and allowed to freely roam the White House grounds. What is now known as the Eisenhower building is in the background.  This is as things should be.