Stephen Colbert scorns Trump over White House ballroom ‘lie’

Stephen Colbert wasted no time Tuesday ripping into Trump over his White House ballroom project.

Demolition on the East Wing of the U.S. President’s residence began Monday as crews began ripping up the 1902-built facade to make room for Trump’s $250 million, 90,000-square-foot ballroom.

It comes after Trump promised in July that his ballroom construction wouldn’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,” he told reporters in a clip shared by Colbert on The Late Show.

“So, that was a lie,” said the host.

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Quoting from a Wall Street Journal article, Colbert added, “Someone in his administration is clearly smart enough to know how bad this looks, because the Treasury Department is right next door facing the demolition, and Treasury has now told their employees not to share any photos of the construction.”

“Not generally something you’d instruct when you’re proud of what’s going on,” Colbert said.

The 61-year-old late night host went on to call Trump’s destruction of the White House “deeply unsettling” and joked, “We are not giving him the security deposit back.”

In a statement to The Independent, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in response: “While talentless hack Stephen Colbert continues to spiral over the cancellation of his failed, low-ratings TV show, President Trump is busy making our country greater than ever before and delivering for the American people.”

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The East Wing, which was built in 1902 and given a second floor under then-president Franklin Roosevelt in 1942, has traditionally housed the Office of the First Lady and other parts of the White House, including the White House Travel Office and the White House Military Office.

It also sits atop the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, the Second World War-era bomb shelter constructed for Roosevelt that was famously used by then-vice president Dick Cheney during the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on New York and Washington.

News of the demolition work was met with scorn from critics, one of whom argued the president was “doing more damage to the White House than the British did in 1814.”

On his social media platform Truth Social, Trump wrote Monday: “Completely separate from the White House itself, the East Wing is being fully modernized as part of this process, and will be more beautiful than ever when it is complete!”

Trump also reminded followers that the project is being “privately funded by many generous Patriots, Great American Companies, and, yours truly.”

Last week, the president told donors at a fundraising dinner for the ballroom that the project had been financed with the help of donations from a slew of companies, including Apple, Amazon, Lockheed Martin and Coinbase.

He has said the new ballroom will seat as many as 650 people — more than three times the capacity of the East Room.