I've now been writing about the Left's obsession with President Trump's ballroom project for more than a year. It's worth remembering that this fixation really started with a lie, or rather a pair of them. When the East Wing was torn down to make room for the new ballroom, progressives claimed that White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt had promised, "Nothing will be torn down." This quote was cited in stories by the AP and in thousands of tweets about the project.

Inconveniently, this fact that everyone on the left knew was completely false. Leavitt had never said the line attributed to her. It was said by a reporter during a White House press conference and the line was falsely attributed to Leavitt in the transcript. In fact, Leavitt had shown pictures of the new ballroom standing in place of the old East Wing, which should have made it clear the old building had to go.

Most progressives either never got the memo or pretended it didn't matter. You stopped hearing the fake Leavitt quote as often but no one ever apologized for getting it wrong. Instead the anger remained and just sought out new justifications. There were attempts to block the construction in court, including by one historic preservationist who claimed to be upset by the view when walking past the White House. Those complaints were finally put to rest by the Supreme Court.

As the construction has continued, so has the fixation on destroying the ballroom as soon as Democrats can manage it. 

It's especially unpopular at the Atlantic.

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And at the Bulwark:

Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner vowed that he would one day have a piece of the demolished site on his desk after some future elected officials blow it up. Others are vowing to tear it down if they become president.

It really has become a fixation for many people.

Today, Rep. Clyburn jumped on the bandwagon, highlighting a new photo of the construction to stoke outrage.

And stoke outrage he did.

If you're a relatively normal person, you would think that the sweeping wins Democrats just experienced on election night would ease some of this crazed energy demanding we tear things down before they are even built. But that doesn't at all seem to be the case. 

Instead, it feels as if hating the ballroom has become another piece of left-wing identity politics. It shows others that you're the right kind of person. The idea doesn't have to make sense or be practical, it's really more of a pose designed to attract like-minded people. It's engagement bait, which is why you usually see it pop up on X more than anywhere else.

In any case, the chances that anyone is going to tear this down are near zero at this point. The next Democrat president, whenever that happens, will hold events in the White House ballroom and the whole "tear it down" phase will be considered as silly as woke 1.0.

There is a simple solution to the fact that the ballroom is much bigger than the existing west wing on the other side of the White House residence. Rebuild the West wing and make it the same size. Then the media won't have to gather in a former indoor swimming pool that is much too small. Again, maybe the next Democrat President will propose this. If so, the media will proclaim him a genius.