“Two terms, where we’re nine months into this, you’d think we think it would be impossible for us to be shocked by Donald Trump,” Stephen Colbert began his Late Show monologue on Tuesday. “But give the man credit, every so often, he takes the time to attach the electrodes to our nipples and and then it feels like the first time.”
Of course, the late night show host is talking about the president “going Hulk Smash on the White House.” Demolition of parts of the White House’s East Wing, built in 1902 and expanded in 1942, began this week, as part of construction on Trump’s $250 million new ballroom. On Monday, some of the East Wing’s windows and an entryway were pulled down by construction workers.
“As part of his White House ballroom project, he sent out a backhoe to rip off a chunk of the East Wing,” said Colbert, showing a picture of the demolition. “That is so deeply unsettling. It’s like being a kid and seeing your teacher at the grocery store. For sale. In the meat department.”
As Colbert pointed out, the demolition of parts of the East Wing is going ahead despite Trump’s promise in July that his new ballroom “won’t interfere with the current building…It’ll be near it but not touching it.”
“So that was a lie,” said Colbert. “At this point, should we even believe that this is going to end up being a ballroom? It could just as easily end up being a combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.”
Colbert also noted that the Treasury Department, which faces the White House, has told employees not to share photos of the demolition — “not generally something you instruct when you’re proud of what’s going on.”
