Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is praising President Donald Trump’s highly controversial 90,000-square-foot ballroom, which requires demolition of part or most of the East Wing of the White House.

Johnson, who often has boasted of being a constitutional lawyer, says that as an “amateur historian” he thinks the Trump addition is the “greatest” improvement to the White House in history.

“This whole dust up about the White House, just by way of quick review — ’cause I’m an amateur historian — you’ll understand,” Johnson told reporters on Wednesday. “The White House has been renovated many times over the years, you understand? I mean, it was built between 1792 and 1800, right?”

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“The British burned it down, practically, in 1814, and then they rebuilt it in the early 1820s, and ever since, like, we’ve had many presidents, renovate, and add things to the White House,” the Speaker said. “Teddy Roosevelt built the whole West Wing. Um, who was it? FDR, Taft, I think, added the Oval Office. FDR made additions.”

“I mean, Truman put the — ripped everything up to put a bowling alley in. FDR had added the swimming pool, I think. Barack Obama added a basketball court.”

“President Trump’s gonna add the greatest improvement to the White House in the history of the building,” Johnson declared, “since it was originally constructed in 1800. The ballroom is gonna be glorious.”

The Speaker said that if Democrats win back the White House they will “get to use it, too.”

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“This is for the American people, and he’s using private funds to do it,” Johnson added. “How in the world could they oppose that? The only reason, the only logical reason, is because they have Trump Derangement Syndrome, and that’s what explains a lot of this, too.”

Some Democrats and legal experts have raised legal and ethical concerns.

.@SpeakerJohnson: “The White House has been renovated many times…President Trump’s going to add the greatest improvement to the White House in the history of the building…The ballroom is going to be glorious. It’s gonna be used for everybody. And by the way, hey, Democrats,… pic.twitter.com/8eDm5OKZh7

— CSPAN (@cspan) October 22, 2025

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U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), the once-loyal MAGA soldier whose recent attacks on her own party have led some to wonder if she is the “New Republican Voice of Sanity,” is out with another thrashing of the GOP, this time on health care.

“More of my Republican colleagues are finally talking about the unaffordable health insurance crisis, but yesterday on our GOP conference call Speaker Johnson said he has ideas and pages of policy, but did not say a single policy plan,” she wrote on Wednesday. “I think that is unacceptable.”

Congresswoman Greene did not reserve her criticism for just Republicans.

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Claiming that “Democrats created this nightmare 15 years ago, then made it worse in 2021 by extending the ACA tax credits that are now expiring,” she declared, “I find it unacceptable that Republicans are sitting on the sidelines doing nothing to fix this healthcare disaster that is leading many Americans into financial ruin.”

Numerous reports say some — and including many of Greene’s fellow Georgia residents — will see Obamacare premiums “more than double” unless Congress reinstates the Affordable Care Act subsidies, which Republicans to date have refused to do.

Greene blames Democrats for the expiring subsidies, and alleges that Democrats “are admitting they screwed the whole health insurance system up and they are admitting original Obamacare is now way too expensive.”

Reminding her colleagues that they are the party in power, she called on Republicans “to build the off ramp off of Obamacare in a responsible way, deregulate healthcare and pharmaceuticals and demand price transparency across the board, and incentivize the market in such a way to open up competition which will drive down cost.”

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“Pick up your bat and ball and get in the game,” she urged, while taking a swipe at MAGA loyalty.

“Our districts voted for us. Our districts sent us to Congress. No one else. No one or any lobby deserves our loyalty and support.”

President Donald Trump, during his first term, promised multiple times he would put out a plan to “repeal and replace” Obamacare. No comprehensive plan ever surfaced. During the 2024 presidential campaign, he said he had the “concepts of a plan.”

Last year in September, KFF reported that “Trump has long talked about making the ACA less expensive, but the question is less expensive for whom. Trump’s past proposals would certainly have made the ACA less expensive for the federal government, but with the trade-off of higher out-of-pocket premiums for people, more uninsured, and higher spending and greater risk for states.”

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A sweeping new poll seen as a “reliable pre-election barometer” finds majorities of Americans deeply unhappy with the nation’s course and increasingly describing President Donald Trump as a “dangerous dictator.”

“The survey offers a snapshot of the nation’s sour mood just more than a year before the 2026 midterms — and suggests that anger could rewire political alliances and test the durability of Trump’s support,” Axios reported.

PRRI, the Public Religion Research Institute, found that six in ten Americans (62%) see the country headed in the wrong direction. That includes strong majorities of Democrats (92%) and independents (71%), as well as nearly one in four Republicans (24%).

On how the president is doing his job, well over half of Americans (56%) disapprove. But nearly nine in ten Republicans (86%) approve, as do 32% of independents, and just 8% of Democrats. Overall, Trump has a 58% unfavorable rating, and a 40% favorable rating.

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The negative perceptions of the president appear to run even deeper.

“A majority of Americans agree ‘President Trump is a dangerous dictator whose power should be limited before he destroys American democracy’ (56%), up from 52% in March 2025, compared with 41% who agree ‘President Trump is a strong leader who should be given the power he needs to restore America’s greatness.'”

Additionally, PRRI found that most Americans “agree with the statement ‘What President Trump is doing to the federal government is an assault on constitutional checks and balances and the rule of law’ (54%), compared with 43% who agree with the statement ‘What President Trump is doing to the federal government is a long-overdue correction of disastrous policies pushed by elites at the expense of ordinary Americans.'”

Meanwhile, nearly two-thirds of Americans (65%) are dissatisfied with the economy and how the federal government is functioning. That includes nine in ten Democrats, and nearly three in ten Republicans.

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When asked about how the federal government is handling undocumented immigrants, 57% disapprove, including 89% of Democrats and 18% of Republicans.

The survey also found that majorities “say that the cuts in federal funding of health care programs (60%) and universities and research institutions (55%), the implementation of new tariffs on imported goods (54%), and the increase in funding for ICE to speed up efforts to arrest, detain, and deport undocumented immigrants (52%) have gone too far, though partisan differences are stark, with Democrats being far more likely to say such changes have gone too far.”

PRRI CEO Melissa Deckman told Axios that it “looks like political independents are very unhappy with Trump’s actions,” with “close to two-thirds on many indicators saying the administration has gone too far in its policies.”

She added: “That’s a warning sign for the GOP ahead of the midterms.”

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Image via Reuters