Which Media Outlets Bought That a World-Historic Cheapskate Will Pay For a White House Ballroom?

To be paid for by who?? The guy who famously failed to pay hundreds of “carpenters, dishwashers, painters, even his own lawyers” in such a consistent pattern that it may as well be called his business plan? That guy?

Yes, the White House unveiled a plan, supposedly to commence construction in September, to replace the East Wing of the White House with a gaudy, gold-encrusted ballroom capable of hosting 650 guests. According to the administration itself, the big price tag won’t be hung on taxpayers: “President Trump, and other patriot donors, have generously committed to donating the funds necessary to build this approximately $200 million dollar structure.”

There is no word who those “other patriot donors” might be, or exactly how many of the president’s own dollars will support the project — but that doesn’t stop diligent news outlets like the New York Times from parroting the claim!

To be fair, inside the news stories from many outlets — The Guardian, the AP, NBC News, the BBC, and so on — there was at least some added context: that either Trump himself or press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who discussed the ballroom project during a briefing on Thursday, made the claim regarding the money. Noble stenography, to be sure, only none of those major news sources offered the caveat that this is Donald Trump we’re talking about.

None decided it was worth mentioning his history of not wanting to pay for anything at all, or the very obvious fact that he is using his office to enrich himself in a manner that the word “obscene” cannot remotely measure up to. Is the guy who has made $1 billion in various crypto scams in nine months going to pony up for a construction project? The guy who accepted a luxury jet from Qatar, is trying to hide the $1 billion in taxpayer money required to retrofit it, and will then steal it from those taxpayers for himself when he leaves office? Is it maybe worth speculating that the “patriot donors” might just be companies or people looking to literally bribe the president into doing some favors?

Ten years into the Trump era of politics, and a solid few decades since his various grifts have been very public, it doesn’t seem like too much to ask for national reporters and their outlets provide the man’s monetary claims with some of that context. Will a few token dollars of the president’s actual money fund a crystal chandelier or two? Sure, maybe, he knows how to orchestrate this sort of spectacle. Will he meaningfully “pay” for the monstrosity? No! Of course not! Come on!

And while basically every outlet offered the “the White House said” version of the claim, only one major news source joined the Fox News universe in putting “Trump will pay for it” up in their headline or subhead. You can guess which one.