Strange Things Indeed Are Happening

Photo credit: Public Domain

((Note: This comment was posted in January. Now, in October, the self-annointed King of America has demolished the historic East Wing of the White House to make way for a garish ballroom. He’s already gilded much of the interior of the White house. Americans are rightly outraged. The headline has been updated. — RJ Stewart)

IN LIFE AND IN LITERATURE, regal abodes often are the symbol of power and wealth. Maybe you have a favorite, such as Edinburgh Castle in Scotland. Maybe you like Chenonceau, built across the Cher River in France. Or Neuschwanstein Castle (above) in Bavaria. The Palace of Versailles in France is an impressive symbol of monarchy, wealth, and power. Medieval Warwick Castle in England is both a fortress and a showy castle. To be sure, defense from enemies is among the purposes of any nice castle.

There’s no shortage of opulent homes in America, either. Biltmore in Asheville, N.C., testifies to the vast wealth of George Washington Vanderbilt. Hearst Castle, also called La Cuesta Encantada, shouts from the California Coast the wealth and power of newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst .

What about the White House in Washington, D.C.? It was originally called President's Palace but the name didn’t stick, perhaps because the founders were a little sensitive about suggesting a monarchy. By comparison to the sprawl and architecture of the castles mentioned above, the White House is modest. But it has been modified at times to make it more functional and showy. Some history:

President George Washington and Pierre L'Enfant, a city planner, chose the site for the White House, and Irish architect James Hoban designed it. During the War of 1812, the White House was burned, so Hoban led an effort to rebuild it. President James Monroe moved into to the rebuilt version in 1817. Herbert Hoover was President in 1929 when a fire in the West Wing broke out. Throughout much of Harry S. Truman's presidency, the interior of the house, with the exception of the third floor, was completely gutted and renovated while the Trumans lived at Blair House, right across Pennsylvania Ave. 1

Will the latest president want to make The White House a little spiffier? Perhaps he will want his wealthiest supporters to feel more at home when they come over for cocktails and dinner, maybe a movie and some popcorn. Who knows? The White House has been changed before, sometimes to suit the taste of the current occupant or his spouse, sometimes more dramatically, as in the case of the remodel during the Truman administration.

When the wife of President John F. Kennedy wanted to redecorate the White House in 1960, she was generally applauded, but there was criticism as well. She came from an cultured family and married into one as well. Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy was a popular and charismatic First Lady whose elegance and refinement informed her redecoration ideas. She established a Fine Arts Commission to ensure proper collaboration, hired a White House Curator, and redecorated with 19th Century furnishings, paintings, and “objets d’art.” She was from class, and she was classy.2

Last week, the latest president’s wealthy supporters assembled at the United States Capitol Building for his inauguration. That building is the most recognized symbol of Democratic government in the world. Unlike the White House, it isn’t a residence; it’s an office building to house the senators and representatives elected to carry out the work of democracy.

News reports underlined the immense wealth that assembled for the ceremony. The three richest Americans were among the attendees. Their wealth is nearly incomprehensible, estimated recently at just shy of $900 billion.3 It wouldn’t cost these very wealthy people much of their net worth at all to have something very impressive built in the place of The White House. For example, it cost about $3.5 billion in today’s dollars to build Palace of Versailles. The president’s wealthy friends could easily pay for a rebuild of that magnitude. The personal wealth of one of the people, Mark Zuckerberg, went up by more than amount in just one day last week!

Of course, there is much more to Versailles and The White House than just location and building costs, so reaching for a number for a complete rebuild is a bit of a fool’s errand. For one thing, there is no slave labor these days, as was used initially. Workers would have to be paid a good wage now.4

Still, the persons who have crowded around the latest president can afford a lot of stuff, even a fancier White House. Generosity for favorite causes is common in America, so a donation for such a cause isn’t far fetched. Even higher education depends in large measure on donors. Many church goers, for example, pledge ten percent of their income, a tithe, to their church. If each of the three wealthiest persons in America were to pledge ten percent of their recent estimated wealth, the number would be $90 billion, and that would certainly fund a nice remodel of The White House.

There is nothing wrong with wealth or the ingenuity behind the production of it. Ultra-rich Americans are testimony to the fabled “land of opportunity.” But one must admit gobsmack when loud, aggressive, and belligerent wealth characterizes a presidential inauguration. It makes one wonder if the government belongs to the people or to the few.

The growing wealth disparity between average Americans and a handful of multi-billionaires such as are befriending the latest president understandably has raised alarms. No one has suggested rebuilding The White House into a modern -day Versailles, but if Musk, Zuckerburg, and Bezos want something nice like that it could happen. They haven’t shown much support for sharing their wealth through graduated taxation. They seem very interested in the benefits to their wealth that some of the latest president’s ideas suggest. 5A show of wealth at the nation’s new presidential palace may be something they deem worthwhile, or perhaps a perquisite to the latest president that might help them with other enterprises they’re thinking about. The very rich already have shown their willingness to impress the latest president. Some donated very large sums to the inauguration ceremonies and parties. This hasn’t been a normal swearing-in process; far more has been raised and spent on nice things for the latest president. It has been a bit strange, actually. If nothing else, one an deduce that this guy likes all kinds of gifts, even homage.

As Red Buttons sang in the early 1950s, Strange things are happening.6