‘White House is not his house’: Ex-Trump official bashes president’s fancy new ballroom

Former White House official Marc Short bashed President Donald Trump's ballroom project, which included the complete demolition of the East Wing, during an interview on CNN on Thursday. Short, the chief of staff to former Vice President Mike Pence, discussed the project on CNN's "The Arena with Kasie Hunt." Short argued that the White House likely prefers that the media continue to focus on the story because of all the other problems the administration is dealing with, such as the tenuous peace deal in the Middle East and Trump's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files. "The White House is not his personal house," Short said. "It belongs to the American people, and it's the American taxpayer who pays for it. So the fact you have other people donating, I think, is a little bit of a canard, but I also think it's clear the White House is on the defensive right now. They probably also would rather you cover this than the fact that farmers and ranchers are actually now rising up about the president's trade agenda," Short said to host Kasie Hunt. "He's going to China because the trade agenda is that much in disarray," he continued. "You have nine months of trying to coax Putin, and you actually have disruption, and you have to sanction Russia. You have a so-called peace deal in Israel that seems to be falling apart. And so there are a lot of big issues that impact the American people daily, and to be covering this is probably preferable for them.".