Economist: History always warns leaders who renovate official headquarters Politics news

The British magazine The Economist discussed in an article US President Donald Trump’s project to build a new ballroom in the White House, considering it a new chapter in a long history of political leaders’ tendency to transform official residences into symbols of luxury and vanity.

The project, whose details are conflicting in terms of size and cost, ranging between $200 and $300 million, comes in the wake of an executive order signed by Trump to adopt “classical architecture” as the official style for state buildings, in a move that his critics saw as an embodiment of his penchant for imperial appearances, while his supporters see it as an important decision.

The magazine believes that when leaders call on architects and interior designers, this reflects an excessive sense of self-importance and ostentation.

Who ask for a Ball Room?
The White House belongs to all Americans.. This a disgrace.. And this administration will be held accountable..#America pic.twitter.com/5tw6Zalbbs

— Fight for Democracy (@breakingwtfnews) October 23, 2025

It was reported that the King of France, Louis 14, who ruled his country from 1643 to 1715, spent a huge fortune, charging his subjects at a cost of 100 million livres du tons (the equivalent of probably about 2.6 billion dollars today), to transform a small hunting lodge into the luxurious Palace of Versailles, which became a blatant embodiment of class differences before the dynasty of kings ended with the guillotine.

In the 1980s, Romanian leader Nicolae Ceaușescu spent a third of his country’s budget on the “People’s Palace” before he was killed by members of the army after a popular revolution.

The magazine recalls similar recent cases, including Jacob Zuma, after his election as president of South Africa in 2009, taking the decision to transform his family farm into a luxury complex under the pretext that it needed “security modernization,” including a huge swimming pool and a luxurious shelter for his herds of livestock.

His justifications for building the complex from the public treasury were very strange, as he said that a stray cow might raise a false alarm, and that a “firefighting pond” was necessary in case one of the thatched roofs caught fire.

King Louis 14 of France, who ruled his country from 1643 to 1715, spent a huge fortune, at a cost to his subjects of 100 million livres tons (the equivalent of probably about $2.6 billion today), to transform a small hunting lodge into the luxurious Palace of Versailles.

The installation of a luggage elevator at the official residence of the Prime Minister of Australia in 2016 sparked widespread dissatisfaction after it turned out that its cost amounted to 83,500 Australian dollars (about 62,000 US dollars).

Wallpaper, the cost of one roll of which was estimated at 840 pounds ($1,155), also contributed to the downfall of Boris Johnson, British Prime Minister between 2019 and 2022, after he used it to decorate his apartment in Downing Street.

But the most extravagant list – as reported by The Economist – was for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who improved his residence with mummified lions on its walls, armor, swords, a white Steinway piano, and an artificial lake with a replica ship in the middle, in which chandeliers worth $97,000 are hung. After his escape, the house was opened to the public to become a “museum of corruption.”

The Economist concludes that Trump’s project, even if he bears the costs of its implementation, will continue to be haunted by the “ghost of history,” to the point that his critics compare it to the Palace of Versailles in Paris.