Nov. 10, 2025

Inside Trump’s $300M Golden White House Ballroom: Glenn Beck Says It’s About ‘Power,’ and Mike Johnson Admits They’ve Talked About a Third T

Show Notes
Transcript

Conservative host Glenn Beck says Trump personally told him the real reason he’s tearing down the East Wing and replacing it with a 90,000-square-foot, gold-soaked, bulletproof ballroom: foreign leaders only respect “power and wealth,” and Trump wants them to feel like they’re walking into a palace. We explain how Trump fast-tracked demolition, bypassed normal review, and greenlit a project that’s expected to cost around $300 million and seat more than triple what the old East Room could handle — the first major structural change to the White House complex since the Truman Balcony in 1948. Then: House Speaker Mike Johnson says he’s already spoken with Trump about the “constrictions of the Constitution,” basically conceding they’ve discussed a third Trump term but admitting there’s “no path” to change the 22nd Amendment fast enough. This episode hits the two questions that actually matter for 2028: How far will Trump bend American institutions to match his ego — and are Republicans quietly planning for a post-Trump era, or planning for no post-Trump era at all?

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Caalaroga shark media from Washington, DC out where the city's

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turning to gold. This is ballot Yeah too bad. Our

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luck died when Biden couldn't last ten minutes in a debate.

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Let's hit this. I'm Patrick Guttfield and Glenn Beck says

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Trump told him the real reason he's building a three

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hundred million dollar gold ballroom at the White House, and honestly,

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it's exactly what you'd expect. Beck claims he spoke with

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Trump in the private quarters of the White House recently,

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where the President explained his thinking behind the controversial ninety

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thousand square foot ballroom that's currently being built where the

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East Wing used to be. According to Beck, Trump said,

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you see all the gold. It's so important. These foreign leaders,

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they all come from palaces and they don't understand and

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I know the White House is different, America is different,

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but they understand a power in a different way. So

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Trump's building a palace because foreign leaders I won't respect

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him unless he lives in a palace. That's the official explanation.

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He needs to project power and wealth because world leaders

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come from old countries in these big buildings and apparently

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won't take America seriously, unless we have a room the

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size of one and a half football fields covered in gold.

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Beck was very clear about this. It's not because he

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likes gold. He's doing it to project power and wealth,

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which is hilarious because Trump absolutely likes gold. The man

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has spent his entire life covering everything he owns in gold.

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His apartment looks like Liberachi's fever dream. But sure, this

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time it's purely strategic. Beck continued, Notice how many prime

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ministers they're all flying in all the time from all

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over the world. I've never seen a president meet with

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so many foreign dignitaries in the White House all the time.

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He knows the language they speak, and not just body

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language or spoken language. That's what protocol is all about.

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It all means something right. Trump is meeting with foreign

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leaders constantly while simultaneously shutting down the government, threatening to

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deploy military forces into American cities, and giving speeches about

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how water destroys magnets. But the real priority is making

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sure of visiting dignitaries know he's wealthy. Beck also revealed

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that Trump was surprised he could make such alterations to

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the historic White House, but since the building permit process

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is controlled by the President himself. Trump realized he could

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make it as short as he liked. So the President

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of the United States discovered he could bypass the normal

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approval process for demolishing part of the White House and

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just did it. No oversight, no real review, just I

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want a ballroom. Let's tear down the East Wing. The

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ballroom is supposed to be funded by private donations, though

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it's now expected to cost three hundred million dollars with

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no confirmed completion date. It'll seat six hundred and fifty guests,

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compared to the East Room's current capacity of two hundred.

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This will be the first structural change to the White

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House since the Truman balk He was added in nineteen

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forty eight. Truman added a balcony. Trump is demolishing an

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entire wing to build a golden palace, and his justification

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foreign leaders won't understand American power unless we build a

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room that looks like Versailles. Never Mind that the United

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States became the most powerful country in the world without

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a ninety thousand square foot bulletproof ballroom. Never Mind that

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every previous president managed to conduct diplomacy in the existing

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White House. Just fine, Trump needs gold he needs scale,

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He needs foreign leaders to walk in and think, Wow,

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this guy must be important. Look at all this gold.

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Speaker Mike Johnson just casually confirmed that he and Donald

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Trump have discussed a third presidential term, which is, you know,

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completely unconstitutional. Johnson was asked about Trump floating the idea

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of a third term, something explicitly barred by the twenty

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second Amendment, and his response was basically, yeah, we've talked

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about it, but unfortunately there's that pesky constitution in the way. Well,

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there's the twenty second Amendment. Johnson said, It's been a

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great run, but I think the president knows, and he

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and I have talked about the constrictions of the constitution.

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The constrictions of the Constitution, that's what we're calling it now,

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not the fundamental rules of our democracy or the law

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of the land, just some minor constrictions like a too

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tight belt. After Thanksgiving dinner, this all started heating up

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again after Steve Bannon, former Trump strategist and man who

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looks like he sleeps in a filing cabinet, told The

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Economist that there's a plan in place to keep Trump

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in office past twenty twenty nine at the appropriate time

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will lay out what the plan is, Bannon said, which

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is a terrifying thing to hear from someone who helped plan.

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January sixth, there was speculation that Trump could run for

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vice president and then claim the presidency after the election,

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which is such a ridiculous loophole that even Trump rejected it,

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saying it's too cute. It wouldn't be right. Too cute.

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That's Trump's standard for constitutional governance, not illegal or authoritarian

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or a betrayal of democratic principles, just too cute. The

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twenty second Amendment was ratified in nineteen fifty one specifically

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to prevent presidents from serving more than two terms. And

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if that amendment doesn't count, which other ones might we ignore?

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Should we take away Booze the right to bear arms,

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or maybe the entire Bill of Rights. Portions of today's

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show were made with the help of the Supreme Court

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in Ai.