The demolition of the East Wing of the White House is a visible symbol of what is currently happening in the US: the dismantling of democracy, the weakening of institutions, the trampling of international agreements, and the abandonment of the population.

While since this weekend, food stamp recipients in the US—and there are 40(!) million of them (why is a completely different issue and has to do with the minimum wage, which Congress has not raised for decades)— do not know how they will put food on the table because funding for food stamps has been blocked by the budget dispute, the president is generously donating funds to renovate the White House. He wants a ballroom, naturally with lots of gold and kitsch, so that he too can show off. The result will be a building with a floor space of 8,360 square meters, almost twice the size of the old White House with 5,100 square meters, including the now demolished East Wing.

All that gold isn’t to everyone’s taste, and the internet has had fun finding the stucco used in hardware stores and comparing prices.

The only way to do this is to tear down part of the White House—without a building permit, without involving the historic preservation authorities, but with $300 million in donations that he has “requested” from companies. Companies that need favors from him.

Corruption is rampant and there is no end in sight to the megalomania. Now there are plans to erect a triumphal arch in Washington D.C., similar to the one in Paris, and Trump still covets seeing his head on Mount Rushmore. The next generation of fighter jets after the F-35 will not be called the F-36, but the F-47 – with 47 representing Trump as the 47th president of the United States.