John Oliver Slams Trump’s White House Ballroom Plans

John Oliver has criticized President Donald Trump’s White House renovation plans during the latest episode of ‘Last Week Tonight.’ Oliver focused on Trump’s proposed White House ballroom, which he promoted during a social media post made while visiting China. Oliver said Trump has spent the past year reshaping Washington with “a sweeping makeover,” including new flagpoles, a paved-over Rose Garden, and Oval Office redesigns. He joked the White House now looks like “if an ancient Egyptian pharaoh owned an Airbnb,” before turning to the ballroom’s rising construction costs. Oliver claimed the ballroom’s estimated cost increased from $200 million to $400 million after Trump argued the venue needed to be “twice the size.” He then played footage of Trump responding to a reporter's question about the ballroom’s doubled cost, saying, “I doubled the size of it, you dumb person. You are not a smart person.” Oliver called the exchange unusually harsh “even by his standards,” and joked that the “only time it’s OK to yell ‘you dumb person’ at anyone is… if you’re watching Jeopardy.”