Beege mentioned this in the headlines a few days ago but Democrats are still running with this lie so let's talk about it.
This all started last week when Karoline Leavitt was giving a daily White House press briefing and she was asked this question: "In addition to the ballroom and the Rose Garden patio, is the president looking at any other renovations or significant kind of projects here at the White House?"
Leavitt replied, "Not to my knowledge, no. But he’s a builder at heart, clearly. And so his heart and his mind is always churning about how to improve things here on the White House grounds. But at this moment in time, of course, the ballroom is really the president’s main priority."
A video of this exchange immediately took off with Democrats intentionally misreading Leavitt's comments.
Leavitt: At this moment in time, the ballroom is really the president's main priority. pic.twitter.com/pXDBW39CVt
— Acyn (@Acyn) October 23, 2025
The context of the quote was there in the video but Democrats went wild anyway. Gov. Gavin Newsom's social media people jumped on it.
Good to know. https://t.co/QEhPylmqbo
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) October 23, 2025
House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries shared a 5-second version that cut out all of the context.
The Trump administration just declared that erecting a ballroom is the President’s main priority.
— Hakeem Jeffries (@RepJeffries) October 23, 2025
Meanwhile.
The cost of living is way too high and the Republican healthcare crisis threatens millions of Americans. pic.twitter.com/fFTWa31USX
A California congressman:
Forget the presidential palaces, fix the premium problem. https://t.co/prTfhgd4zp
— John Garamendi (@RepGaramendi) October 23, 2025
A Pennsylvania congressman.
We can tell. https://t.co/LdcNwDbsVm
— Congressman Brendan Boyle (@RepBrendanBoyle) October 23, 2025
One from Colorado:
At least they're finally being honest. https://t.co/DS3Uw3aFBD
— Rep. Diana DeGette (@RepDianaDeGette) October 23, 2025
And Virginia:
"The ballroom is really the president's main priority."
— Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) October 23, 2025
Not your health care.
Not rising prices.
Not the dragging economy.
Not ending the shutdown.
Trump's "main priority" is wrecking the White House so he can build a fancy new ballroom. https://t.co/8Biwx0FGGQ
And Massachusetts:
What's included in the "America first" agenda?
— Rep. Richard Neal (@RepRichardNeal) October 24, 2025
❌ Reopening the government
❌ Protecting the health care of millions of Americans
❌ Ensuring the delivery of SNAP benefits
❌ Paying dedicated public servants
✅"The ballroom is really the president's main priority." https://t.co/gUsCaPbuxg
A bunch of House committee accounts run by ranking member Democrats also got in on it.
It's clear national security is not his main priority. https://t.co/scQt2u5KVs
— House Homeland Security Committee Democrats (@HomelandDems) October 23, 2025
Lots of talk about the President’s $300 million ballroom and not the 24 million Americans whose health care premiums are able to double.
— Committee on Education & Workforce Democrats (@EdWorkforceDems) October 23, 2025
Sounds on brand. https://t.co/vgfzqwBz5E
Maybe literally anything else Americans are struggling with could be a priority? Cost of living? Health care? National security?
— Natural Resources Democrats (@NRDems) October 23, 2025
Just a thought. https://t.co/DF2v2h7nOF
Senator Mark Kelly didn't actually say anything but did retweet it.
— Senator Mark Kelly (@SenMarkKelly) October 23, 2025
And of course, Sen. Chuck Schumer, the senate minority leader.
Ever hear of health care, Trump? https://t.co/GYjl09qeGT
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) October 23, 2025
Clearly, an email had gone out telling Democrats to jump all over this and they did, with both feet. This was coming from the top down. The DNC account just ditched the video entirely.
Why? pic.twitter.com/jRlB6YTgMj
— Democrats (@TheDemocrats) October 23, 2025
The House Democrats account also used the 5-second version of the clip.
So, Trump's MAIN priority is a $300 MILLION ballroom? Not lowering costs. Not saving health care. Not reopening the government.
— House Democrats (@HouseDemocrats) October 23, 2025
Got it. pic.twitter.com/6wvM9B3s2M
And of course the Bulwark jumped on this bandwagon:
I’ve listened to thousands of voters in focus groups and you’ll be surprised to learn that not a single one has ever mentioned a ballroom at the White House being a priority for them. https://t.co/w91bdU1EHQ
— Sarah Longwell (@SarahLongwell25) October 23, 2025
https://t.co/hjMW21ttyv pic.twitter.com/0eRQWRsV2J
— Jim Swift (@JimSwiftDC) October 23, 2025
There was just one problem. They were all intentionally ignoring the context of her comments. By the next day, fact-checkers were pointing out that this amounted to a lie. Even the hacks at Politifact deemed it false:
The clip of Leavitt’s statement is real, but Jeffries and the House Democratic Caucus clipped her comments in a misleading way that removes the context: Leavitt never said the ballroom is a more important priority for the president than inflation, health care or ending the federal government shutdown...
Jeffries wrote, "The Trump administration just declared that erecting a ballroom is the President’s main priority," rather than issues such as the cost of living and health care.
This twists Leavitt’s words. She was asked about Trump’s top priorities for renovating parts of the White House campus. In that context, she said the top priority is the ballroom, not that the ballroom is Trump’s top priority among every policy.
We rate the statement False.
CNN's Daniel Dale published a similar fact-check the same day.
Top Democrats in the Senate and House of Representatives have taken a Thursday quote from the White House press secretary out of context to deliver a misleading attack on President Donald Trump...
By clipping out the question Leavitt was asked about White House renovations, the Democrats created a misleading impression about her response.
And one more from Newsweek:
Prominent Democrats have shared a viral clip they say shows White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt describing the new White House ballroom as President Donald Trump's "main priority," but that remark has been taken out of its original context...
The viral clip was taken out of context. When Leavitt made that remark, she was answering a question about whether Trump has any other plans to alter the White House. She described the ballroom as his "main priority" in terms of renovations...
False.
There's no ambiguity here. The leadership of the Democratic party was pushing a lie and by last Friday that lie had been called out by the White House and by various news outlets. So you'd think they would let it go and move on to something else. But no, as of today, four days later, they are still running with this.
Yesterday, Tim Walz repeated this claim (at the end of this clip spread by left-wing hack Aaron Rupar):
Walz: "They are paying contractors to pay down the East Wing but they're not putting money into the food bank. So if there's a sense of frustration in America, it's very real ... when the White House press secretary said their top priority is the ballroom, we could not disagree… pic.twitter.com/FlpJK3Mrul
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 27, 2025
Of course the reason the contractors are still getting paid is that their funding is private (no government money involved) therefore they are not dependent on Democrats to reopen the government.
Jasmine Crockett used this same lie on CNN and even host Kaitlan Collins fact-checked her.
Jasmine Crockett immediately runs the debunked "Trump’s main priority is the ballroom” hoax on her CNN hit.
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) October 28, 2025
The lie is so egregious, she actually gets fact-checked by Kaitlan Collins. https://t.co/HRfeoTZ3ys pic.twitter.com/lvdp4gkuGu
But we're still not done with this because today, Chuck Schumer went there again on the Senate floor. "You can't make this stuff up," Schumer says as he is literally making stuff up about what Karoline Leavitt said.
Chuck Schumer is still lying about @PressSec's quote about the ballroom being President Trump's "main priority," which was a response to a question specifically about White House renovations.
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 28, 2025
He says "you can't make this stuff up," even though that's what he literally did. pic.twitter.com/UlZlJDkT97
Again, this is not a few loose cannons in the Democratic party. The leadership are pushing this lie days after it was fact-checked. Why are they doing this?
Two reasons.
First, they are clearly desperate as there are signs that their coalition to continue their other ongoing lie about the shutdown (that Republicans did it) is starting to look wobbly and the polling may not be going there way. They needed a distraction.
Second, the East Wing teardown story was going gangbusters for Dems last week on the back of a different lie about something Karoline Leavitt never actually said. It turned out the AP made a mistake attributing "nothing will be torn down" to Leavitt (that was actually said by a reporter in the room). So they decided to run with something Leavitt had at least said and just lie about what it meant to keep the outrage flowing.
Democrats are nearing the point they are going to have to climb down from the shutdown they created. They will say anything to avoid taking responsibility for their own actions.
Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is here. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this.
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