Chelsea Clinton's righteous rant on Trump's East Wing ballroom shows entitled world view of progressive elites

The women of the Clinton family are upset that President Donald Trump has taken to beautifying the White House by adding an elegant ballroom for state events. Former President Bill Clinton's daughter, Chelsea, penned her complaint in USA Today, while former First Lady and Obama Secretary of State Hillary posted her grievance on social media.

In so doing, they indicate that the revisionist version of history progressives willed into being is the only one that should stand. But their disgust with change just reveals their own entitlement.

Bill Clinton hasn't said much. While his administration made only small changes to the White House, he used portions of the executive office to conduct an affair with an intern, behavior which led to his impeachment. His wife Hillary claimed, "It’s not [Trump's] house. It’s your house. And he’s destroying it."

Daughter Chelsea had a much more reverent view of the office and the White House grounds. She was a teenager while living in the White House with her family, attending the prestigious Sidwell Friends School. Writing in USA Today she remarks that she always knew the house was not hers, but how her family were essentially stewards of the mansion that dates back to the 1790s.

She notes that over the years, "Presidents and first ladies have added elements for efficiency, for comfort, for aesthetics," before going on to say that there's just something wrong with Trump's ballroom plan. She says that "it is unsettling that such substantial alterations "to the 225-year-old People’s House are being undertaken without a historic-preservation review and seemingly without the involvement of any historians..."


Chelsea balks that Trump has enlisted architects and landscapers who may not be historically versed in White House history. She states that "A disregard for history is a defining trait of President Trump’s second administration," before indulging in rumors that the National Park Service and Smithsonian are being made to "censor" their exhibits.

Her take is that the progressive left has secured the narrative of history and that any updates or revisions—the same kind of revisions and updates that the progressives engaged in over the past 20 years—are inappropriate and blasphemous. She calls the ballroom "a wrecking ball to our heritage."

The entitlement and righteousness with which the young Clinton claims that Trump is ignoring American history while he's actually trying to save it from the progressive dumpster fire of revisionism, her claim that a major addition to the White House is not building "a better future" but destroying it, all speak to a fixed mindset where she cannot envision a view other than her own.

Chelsea ended her rebuke by saying that the dismantling of the East Wing "is a reflection of how easily history can be erased when power forgets purpose." The East Wing will be rebuilt to include a ballroom and it is younger than some sitting congress members. 

Presidents have made changes to the White House throughout its entire history, some massive, some small. Chelsea's own father installed bookcases. The East Wing was first built in 1902 and then rebuilt beginning in 1942. No presidential offspring of Teddy Roosevelt freaked out when changes were made.

The White House must serve its residents as well as visiting dignitaries and statesmen. It is a dynamic, ever-changing building, with renovations catered to the four to eight-year residents at any given time. It is historical, yes, but it is not a castle locked in time, instead a house intended for the use of presidents present and future, not a mausoleum to our nation's past.