The Billionaire’s Ballroom, Perfectly Suited to this Second Gilded Age
In the first Gilded Age, which ran from the 1890s through
the 1920s, captains of American industry were dubbed “robber barons” for using
their baronial wealth to bribe lawmakers, monopolize industry, and rob average
Americans of the productivity of their labors.
Now, in a second Gilded Age, a new generation of robber
barons is using their wealth to do the same — and to entrench
their power.
The first Gilded Age was an era of conspicuous consumption. The second is an era of conspicuous influence.
The new robber barons are having their names etched into the pediments of the giant new ostentatious ballroom Trump is adding to the White House.They already own — and influence — much of the news
Americans receive. And they are eager to promote their views.

Marc Rowan, the billionaire chief executive of Apollo Global
Management, is the force behind Trump’s recent “compact” calling on
universities to limit international students, protect conservative speech,
require standardized testing for admissions, and adopt policies recognizing
“that academic freedom is not absolute,” among other conditions. The Trump
regime dangled “substantial and meaningful federal grants” for universities
that agree.
(It didn’t work. Seven of the nine universities approached
rejected the deal.)
Billionaire Stephen A. Schwarzman, the chief executive of
Blackstone, is also shaping the Trump regime’s campaign to upend American
higher education. Schwarzman has emerged as a key intermediary between Trump
and Harvard University.
Perhaps the new robber baron’s most lasting impression on
the U.S. government will be the lavish White House ballroom Trump is
constructing — a 90,000-square-foot,
gold-leafed, glass-walled banquet room that will literally overshadow
the so-called People’s House.
It will not be an assembly hall, dance hall, music hall,
dining hall, village hall, or town hall. It will be a giant banquet and
ballroom designed to accommodate 650 wealthy VIPs.
Trump claims that the East Room, the largest room in the
White House, is too small. Its capacity is 200 people. He doesn’t like the idea
of hosting kings, queens, and prime ministers in pavilions on the South Lawn.
Trump’s real intention is to have the White House resemble
Versailles.
Potential billionaire donors have already received pledge
agreements for “The Donald J. Trump Ballroom at the White House.” In return for
donations, contributors are eligible for “recognition associated with the White
House Ballroom.”
Their names will be etched in the ballroom’s brick or stone
edifice.
Trump last week hosted
a dinner at the White House for the project’s donors, which included
representatives from Microsoft, Google, Palantir, and other companies, as well
as Schwarzman, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and other billionaires.
Meredith O’Rourke, a top political fundraiser for Trump, is
leading the effort, paired with the Trust for the National Mall, an
organization that supports the National Park Service.
The trust’s nonprofit status means donations come with a
federal tax write-off.
Construction began Monday. Trump is now literally taking a
wrecking ball to the White House — sending parts of the East Wing’s roof, the
building’s exterior, and portions of its interior crumbling to the ground.
It seems fitting that in this second Gilded Age — an age of conspicuous influence and affluent access — the People’s House will be replaced by the Billionaire’s House.
Read the list of White House ballroom donors:
- Altria
Group, Inc.
- Amazon
- Apple
- Booz
Allen Hamilton
- Caterpillar,
Inc.
- Coinbase
- Comcast
Corporation
- J.
Pepe and Emilia Fanjul
- Hard
Rock International
- Google
- HP
Inc.
- Lockheed
Martin
- Meta
Platforms
- Micron
Technology
- Microsoft
- NextEra
Energy, Inc.
- Palantir
Technologies Inc.
- Ripple
- Reynolds
American
- T-Mobile
- Tether
America
- Union
Pacific Railroad
- Adelson
Family Foundation
- Stefan
E. Brodie
- Betty
Wold Johnson Foundation
- Charles
and Marissa Cascarilla
- Edward
and Shari Glazer
- Harold
Hamm
- Benjamin
Leon Jr.
- The
Lutnick Family
- The
Laura & Isaac Perlmutter Foundation
- Stephen
A. Schwarzman
- Konstantin
Sokolov
- Kelly
Loeffler and Jeff Sprecher
- Paolo
Tiramani
- Cameron
Winklevoss
- Tyler
Winklevoss


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