Hillary Clinton’s shot at President Donald Trump over his new White House ballroom didn’t land the way she hoped. Instead, conservatives quickly reminded her of the Clintons’ own White House “furniture fiasco.”
“At least he didn’t steal the silverware,” Sen. Ted Cruz posted on X, mocking her outrage.
Clinton’s post sparked instant backlash, with critics dredging up the 2001 controversy when the Clintons took $28,000 in White House furnishings and later paid $86,000 for gifts they’d accepted while in office.
At the time, the Clintons claimed everything had been properly approved. “If the White House now determines that a cataloging error occurred … any item in question will be returned,” they said in a statement. Hillary added, “All of these items were considered gifts to us… But if there is a different intent, we will certainly honor the intention of the donor.”
Trump had announced Monday that construction began on a new, privately funded 90,000-square-foot ballroom at the White House — big enough for about 650 seated guests.
“I am pleased to announce that ground has been broken… to build the new, big, beautiful White House Ballroom,” Trump said on Truth Social. “The East Wing is being fully modernized… and will be more beautiful than ever when it is complete!”
Clinton wasn’t impressed. Sharing a Washington Post headline about the demolition work, she fumed, “It’s not his house. It’s your house. And he’s destroying it.”
That set off a fresh round of mockery. Eric Trump replied, “The ballroom will be spectacular… unlike your work in Haiti.” Benny Johnson added, “Hi Hillary, wasn’t it you who walked off with $28,000 in furniture when you moved out?”
Others pointed to the Clintons’ infamous Lincoln Bedroom scandal and Bill’s Oval Office behavior. “Yes, between selling nights in the Lincoln Bedroom and her husband’s tutelage of interns… if anyone treated the WH as sacred it was the Clintons,” wrote columnist Mark Hemingway.
“Almost every president has done renovations… including the Clintons, who did a big spread in House Beautiful in 1993,” conservative writer Salena Zito noted. “The East Wing façade isn’t original anyway.”
Even Fox Business host Dagen McDowell chimed in: “What her husband did inside ‘our house’ is the real abomination.”
White House spokesman Davis Ingle fired back at Democrats criticizing the project. “President Trump is working 24/7 to Make America Great Again… including his historic beautification of the White House, at no taxpayer expense,” he said. “These upgrades will benefit generations of future presidents and American visitors to the People’s House.”