While making his first remarks to the nation from the White House about his military attack on Iran that began on Saturday, President Donald Trump came under fire for taking time to discuss his $400 million ballroom and drapes.

“We have a lot of great service members here with us, too, in this beautiful building, isn’t it? Beautiful?” Trump told the audience. “We’re adding on to the building a little bit. We’re improving the building. See that nice drape?”

“When that comes down, right now, you see a very, very deep hole, but in about a year and a half from now, you’re gonna see a very, very beautiful building. And there’s your entrance to it, right there. In fact, it looks so nice, I don’t think I’ll even, I think I’ll save money on the doors, ’cause it can’t get more beautiful than that.”

“I picked those drapes in my first term. I always liked gold, but I think we can save a lot of money. I just saved… I just saved curtains. But, uh, it will be. It will be spectacular. It’ll be the most beautiful ballroom,” he said.

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Critics blasted the president’s remarks.

“American troops are dead and Trump is on TV talking about the drapes…” remarked The Lincoln Project.

“Trump just explained about the attack on Iran that ‘I don’t get bored. There’s nothing boring about this.’ Despite that, he is now talking at some length about gold drapes and ‘the most beautiful ballroom,'” commented columnist Niall Stanage.

“In a war that’s already killed four Americans, Trump says it could last beyond 4-5 weeks because he doesn’t get ‘bored,'” observed Scripps News’ Simon Kaufman. “Moments later, he moves on from Iran and talks about ballroom renovations and drapes.”

“Trump demonstrating his mental disfigurement by bragging about his ballroom and chuckling immediately after claiming that ‘we grieve’ for 4 US soldiers killed in the war he just initiated,” wrote journalist John Harwood. “Trump does not possess empathy and does not grieve for any other person’s misfortune.”

Noting that the president sounded “exhausted and not good,” foreign policy journalist Laura Rozen observed “the difference” in Trump’s “demeanor and affect when talking about the war and then the ballroom is so different.” She also said that “it is evident the war is becoming more of a s — — than he expected.”

“It’s worth noting that Trump is putting infinitely more effort into selling his ballroom to the American people than anyone in his administration is on selling the attack on Iran,” wrote conspiracy theories expert Mike Rothschild.

“Trump started an unnecessary war in the Middle East with no real strategy, there’s already American military loss of life and this guy is obsessing over the damn drapes and his $400 million gilded ballroom project,” remarked former political commentator Tara Setmayer. “How is this making America great????”

“Bragging about his ‘beautiful ballroom’ while he’s supposed to be explaining the somber decision to go to war,” wrote The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser. “It’s one of the most politically tone deaf things I’ve ever seen from a POTUS, including this one…”

Trump: We have a lot of great service members here with us, in this beautiful building. Isn’t it beautiful? We are adding on to the building a little bit. We are improving the building. When that comes down right now, you see a very deep hole. But in about a year and a half from… pic.twitter.com/5qM0zpfkVN

— Acyn (@Acyn) March 2, 2026

READ MORE: Trump ‘Throwing Spaghetti at the Wall’ as He Workshops War Goals With Journalists: Report

Image via Reuters

Gas prices could surge this week as President Donald Trump’s military action in Iran and a seasonal jump in driving combine to push pump prices sharply higher.

According to Patrick De Haan, the head of Petroleum Analysis at GasBuddy, gas prices are expected to start climbing on Monday. Over the coming week, De Haan expects the price of gas at the average station to rise 10–30 cents per gallon, but “potentially 30–85 cents per gallon jumps at individual stations.”

If things go “bad at every turn,” De Haan said, consumers could potentially see prices rising by even more than 50 cents per gallon, MarketWatch reports.

MarketWatch adds that there is “little doubt that the military strikes launched this weekend by the U.S. and Israel on Iran, one of the world’s largest crude producers, will lead to a spike in oil prices” — and that the bigger question is how hard that will hit American drivers at the pump.

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De Haan notes that Trump’s military action in Iran “is adding volatility and risk premium, but it’s landing on top of an already firming market.”

He says that gas prices have been rising for four straight weeks, and 36 states saw average gas prices “rising over the last week “with the national average up to $2.94/gal.”

Citing De Haan, MarketWatch adds that without a doubt, “the Iran attack looks to be the biggest pricing event for gasoline since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.”

“Americans will be very anxious about what the conflict could mean for oil prices, given how President Donald Trump made low oil prices his ‘signature policy,’ De Haan said.”

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President Donald Trump has communicated to the American people through multiple channels about the objectives of his “Operation Epic Fury” — the large-scale military campaign now underway against Iran — though critics contend those objectives continue to shift.

According to The Economist’s Middle East correspondent Gregg Carlstrom, “Trump is basically calling up every journalist in his phone to workshop different timelines and goals for his war.”

Overnight, Carlstrom wrote that in the past two days, Trump told several different media outlets about various goals for the war.

He told The Washington Post that the aim is “freedom for the people” of Iran, Carlstrom wrote.

Trump told Axios that maybe we can “end it in two or three days” with a deal.

He told The New York Times that it might be “four to five weeks,” and said that he has “three very good choices” for who might take control in Iran.

But then, Carlstrom wrote, Trump told ABC News, “actually, nevermind, we killed those choices.”

“He doesn’t sound convinced by any of it,” said Carlstrom. “He’s throwing spaghetti at the wall. Ultimately I suspect he just wants to say he ‘solved’ a problem that has vexed every American president since Jimmy Carter.”

“But there’s no clear idea what that looks like and no plan for how to get there. And there are plenty of possible scenarios in which Trump declares victory and leaves the region with an absolute mess,” he warned.

Others appeared to agree.

New York Times conservative columnist David French, an Iraq War veteran, responded to Carlstrom, saying: “This is an absolute mess.”

Historian Timo R. Stewart wrote: “Throwing spaghetti at the wall is an apt summary of the White House’s chaotic messaging related to the war that has just begun.”

Journalist Alan Friedman added, “No one ever accused the Trump administration of having a clear strategy on matters of tariffs, trade wars, invasions, kidnappings, threats against Greenland or his new war of choice against Iran. He is making it up as he goes along, folks. Hard to believe, but this is improv.”

National security expert Marc Polymeropoulos wrote, “I’m sure someone will say this is deliberate deception, part of his brilliance….”

Image via Reuters