Becki Paris
Donald Trump has unveiled the renovated Lincoln Bathroom at the White House – which has views of his controversial demolition of the East Wing.
The President posted before-and-after photos of rehab of the bathroom, which is attached to one of the most famous rooms in the White House.
Trump wrote on Truth Social: ‘It was renovated in the 1940s in an art deco green tile style, which was totally inappropriate for the Lincoln Era.
‘I did it in black and white polished Statuary marble. This was very appropriate for the time of Abraham Lincoln and, in fact, could be the marble that was originally there!’
The bathroom is connected to the Lincoln Bedroom, which is part of a guest suite on the White House’s second floor. It was used as the former president’s office and Cabinet Room and became the Lincoln Bedroom during Harry Truman’s renovations.
The new bathroom features a large bath tab and separate enclosed shower with golden faucets, railings, soap dishes, coat hooks and lamps, which glow warmly against the bright marbled walls and floor.
The previous design was more sparse, with green tiles on the walls, cold strip lighting and stainless steel where Trump has now added gold.
One of the photos showed a view out of the window where construction workers could be seen working on the demolition of the East Wing to make way for the president’s new privately funded $300 million ballroom.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt proudly touted the latest gilded upgrade which comes after Trump renovated the Rose Garden, Oval Office and added a ‘Presidential Walk of Fame’ to the West Wing.
‘When I first learned a toilet like that existed inside the White House, I was horrified,’ she wrote on X. ‘President Trump is making the People’s House more elegant and beautiful for generations of Americans to come!’
The Lincoln Bedroom is used to host official and personal guests, including world leaders and celebrities.
It comes after the White House said tours will resume on December 2, following their suspension for months due to the construction of the ballroom.
The East Wing was once part of the tour, but has been demolished as part of the project.
The White House says it will now offer ‘an updated route offering guests the opportunity to experience the history and beauty of the People’s House.’
To mark the holidays, December tours feature Christmas decorations curated by First Lady Melania Trump on the State Floor.
Congressional offices can begin submitting tour requests for their constituents on Monday. Such requests had been paused since the summer for ballroom construction.
The unveiling of the new bathroom comes amid fury at the administration over the demolition of the East Wing, an 83-year-old annex to the White House mansion that housed the offices of the First Lady.
The White House was initially cagey about what the plans for the East Wing were, with suggestions that part of the structure would remain intact.
Trump, announcing the ballroom earlier this year, claimed: ‘It won’t interfere with the current building. It’ll be near it but not touching it and pays total respect to the existing building, which I’m the biggest fan of.’
But earlier this month, when he was hosting ballroom donors at a dinner in the East Room, the President appeared to say the quiet part out loud.
Trump opened the gold curtains behind him to unveil the construction site.
‘It will be demolished,’ he said. ‘Everything out there is coming down and it will be replaced by the most beautiful ballroom.’
A number of former staffers of Republican first lady Pat Nixon had written to the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) to try and get the project stopped.
But Trump had already appointed Staff Secretary Will Scharf to lead the NCPC, with Scharf determining the government agency tasked with DC-area federal construction, did not oversee demolitions, just construction.
Democrats see a political opening from the optics of the project, which is happening amid a government shutdown that is seeing federal workers go without pay.
‘I genuinely think the images of them destroying the East Wing of the White House could be a game changer in the elections,’ former Biden White House official Neera Tanden posted to X on Wednesday.
She included polling data that showed Democratic Virginia gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger beating Republican Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears by 13 points.
Conservative Washington Examiner columnist Byron York even gave the White House some grief for the lack of transparency.
‘The President needs to tell the public now what he is doing with the East Wing of the White House. And then tell the public why he didn’t tell them before he started doing it,’ York posted to X Tuesday night.
The White House pushed out a furious response against the outcry, sending out a press release blasting ‘unhinged leftists and their Fake News allies’ for creating ‘manufactured outrage’ over the East Wing’s demolition.
The press release included historical photographs showing previous demolitions and construction projects at the White House dating back to 1902.
Source: Dailymail.co.uk | Read the Full Story…
