Glenn Beck breaks down the absurd outrage surrounding President Trump’s privately funded White House renovations and exposes the double standard that the media refuses to admit. From FDR’s taxpayer-funded swimming pool to Nancy Reagan’s privately raised china, every president has upgraded the people’s house. But when Trump uses his own money to restore historic rooms and fix century-old fixtures, the press calls it “grotesque.” Glenn lays out the forgotten history, the hypocrisy, and why this outrage says more about today’s media than about Trump.
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: All right. So let me give you some perspective on this White House nonsense. Nonsense.
Every time a president dares touch the plaster or paint of the White House, the press loses its collective mind. And seeming, unless the name is Obama, we have seen this happen over and over and over again.
So let me give you some history.
When FDR built the East and west wings. Okay. Those were not there before FDR.
The east and west wings built by FDR, Washington reporters acted as if he were electing a palace while the people starved. I looked up the headlines. These were fabulous. Now, I think you could probably make the case, with the East Wing. Because it -- it included a swimming pool that was just for FDR.
Examine it was all paid for bit taxpayers. And at the time, America was in the Great Depression. And bread lines were circling the blocks. Families lived on ration books, and the government was picking up the tab for the president's expansion of the White House, which included a giant pool for him. Yet, history has been kind to him. And now, The East Wing is revered.
All of the buildings, the press cried outrage over them. They are the now the same buildings they are crying outrage now. Except, this time, the east wing is too historic to change. Just how dare he do this. So let me give you a first of many huge differences here.
What Trump is doing will not cost the American people a dime. Not a dime. Even when the press and those on the left admit that it is private funding. They say, yes. But it is a grotesque waste of money.
Wait a minute. From the people that just took 294 million dollars from billionaires. Over a quarter of a billion dollars, for The No Kings movement, you're lecturing me on what people should do with private funds?
Please, give it a rest. Okay. So not a cent of taxpayer money is going into this. It's privately funded by him and those friends that he's called and said, "Can you help us out on this?"
Okay. Privately funded. The second difference is, it's not for his use. There's no swimming pool. There's no tennis court. You know, there's no Obama basketball court. It's not for his use.
And even, you know, if it had things that the President would use in it. It's not going to be completed until after he leaves office. After he's gone.
So it's not private. It's being funded privately. It's a state dining room and ballroom.
The only thing private about this is the funding. We should all be celebrating this. America is getting an upgrade, and we're not paying for it.
And don't get me wrong. If this was done by really, anybody else, including George Bush or any of the Republicans, presidents past. I would probably have a bigger problem with this. But I am -- I am under an agreement that I cannot share all the things that I know about what the president is doing, and has done to the White House.
Not for any other reason of, he just -- he's not like that. He does not want credit for really great things. I can tell you -- no, no, no, no.
STU: What are we talking about here?
GLENN: No, no. It's weird. It's weird. He doesn't like that softer side of him. It's weird.
STU: Yes. So let's clarify about it. He absolutely does want credit for really great things. He takes it all the time and a lot of times deserves it.
GLENN: Right. But not in this --
STU: But this is a different type of thing?
GLENN: And I looked at him, and I had to sign this.
And I'm like, "Why? Why?" Because I signed a non-disclosure. And so I know what he's doing. I have seen what he has done, up front personal. And there is no one better to work on the White House than him. Okay?
No one better. He's upgrading things that -- that and he's doing it the right way.
Yet, the media, their outrage, it's identical to 1933.
Only, this time, the facts don't fit the fury.
Okay?
Let me remind you of another scandal at the White House.
Nancy Reagan and the White House China. Okay?
Let me give you the headlines from this one. Quote, out of touch Nancy spends $200,000 on plates. While Americans starve!
Americans were starving in the 1980s? Really?
Reagan royalty dine in luxury, as cuts hit the poor.
This was for White House China.
Now, the press made her look like she was royalty and she just couldn't eat off of everyday plates. That's not the truth.
And I know the truth. Because before the White House butler.
And this was under George W. Bush.
The butler who had worked there since the Johnson administration, the White House butler is the head guy!
Okay? He oversees everything in the White House.
I spent the day with him. And just talked to him as I really wanted to do, a podcast or a video with him, but he wouldn't.
And his stories were unbelievable. And he told me a story about the White House China. Because we went down. And he was showing me all the China and everything else from all the different presidents. And he said, you know, one of the best first ladies we ever had. That I ever worked for. Was Nancy Reagan.
I said, really? Even with the China thing, huh. Because she was out of control.
He said, no. Let me tell you that story. He said, Nancy came to him and said, what does the White House need? Because every President -- most of them -- some don't steal the furniture.
Every president tries to leave the White House better than they went in. So she said, "What is it that the White House needs? I'll raise the money for it."
He said, "We need a complete set of state china. We don't have enough, you know, matching plates for official dinners. So we have all this mismatched stuff, and it looks like terrible." So she, again, didn't use taxpayer dollars. She raised private funds so the White House could have a matching set of China for foreign dignitaries when they come. Well, the press turned her into an absolute villain. And the butler told me, he said, "I begged her. I begged her. Please, let me go public. Let me defend -- let me tell the press this was me, not you." And she said, "I'm a big girl, this comes with the job. Now, you just do your job. I'll take the heat from this."
Now, that used -- that's the kind of strength that people used to really respect in America. But, you now, not if it's coming from a Republican. That's the kind of dignity that Melania showed when the press tore her apart recently on absolutely everything.
But before I get to that, let me just -- let me stop at Hillary Clinton. Because she's one of the loudest critics of what's going on. Okay.
The ballroom. It's an outrage.
This is the same First Lady who upon leaving the White House, carted off more than $250,000 of White House furniture! The only thing that got her to routine it was the backlash in the press. By the way, her staff also, if you remind, and her husband, they left penny vandalism behind. Prying all the Ws off all the keyboards. Before the George W. Bush team arrived. So they vandalized and stole furniture. Let me show you the flip here. When Donald Trump arrived, and he entered office the first time, what he found was a greatly aging White House and executive West Wing. Okay.
The -- all the doorknobs were mismatched. They were loose. They were cracked. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Worn carpets. Almost century-old bathrooms that desperately needed updating. In America's most symbolic home, can we have some nice bathrooms here, that just work, they are not 100 years old. You would want that in your house!
He took out of his own pocket, to restore these things, in ways that were absolutely appropriate and beautiful for the White House.
The doorknobs alone, he had them cast. Custom brass doorknobs. Engraved with the presidential seal. They are some of the most beautiful doorknobs, I've ever seen.
I can't imagine how much they've cost him. Okay?
They were not cheap.
But you weren't built for it.
You most likely don't even know any of these things. Okay?
Because it's the people's house. He's restoring the people's house. And trying to make it nicer. With Trump, however, no good deed goes unpunished.
Just the doorknobs alone, beautiful and historic. Okay. Just that. But let me tell you when Biden's team came in. Those very fixtures, the doorknobs, some of them just mysteriously disappeared.
Souvenirs for the adults who were back in charge.





