UNLOCKED: Trump's Big, Beautiful Ballroom (w/ Kate Wagner)
Know Your Enemy22 Joulu 2025

UNLOCKED: Trump's Big, Beautiful Ballroom (w/ Kate Wagner)

This episode originally aired November 17, 2025 on Patreon — we're unlocking it as a holiday treat.

If there's a Trump-era topic that manages to fascinate without being entirely depressing, it's probably the ongoing arguments about architecture that his ascension has occasioned. Proponents of a RETVRN to the architectural ideals of ancient Greece and Rome are prominent in MAGA circles; partisans of a neo-classical revival populate government commissions, and their prescriptions find expression in various executive orders again. To understand who these people are, what their movement wants, and the kernel of truth in their grievances, we talked to architectural critic and proprietor of McMansion Hell Kate Wagner. We start by analyzing Trump's ballroom and the demolishing the East Wing of the White House — the perfect way into MAGA architecture and the mind of their Beautiful Builder himself, Donald J. Trump.

Sources:

Kate Wagner, "Duncing About Architecture," New Republic, Feb 8, 2020

— "Trump Will Not Make Architecture Great Again," The Nation, Jan 7, 2025

— "The Real Problem With Trump’s Cheesy Neoclassical Building Fetish," Feb 12, 2025

— "what the fuck are we doing anymore," The Late Review, Jan 9, 2025.

— "Wrecking Ballroom," The New York Review of Architecture, Dec 17, 2025.

Charlie Nash, "Trump Admits He Could've Built Ballroom Without Destroying the East Wing, But 'It Looked Like Hell,'" Mediate, Nov 10, 2025

Jonathan Edwards & Dan Diamond, "Trump hires new White House ballroom architect," WaPo, Dec 4, 2025.

...and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon for access to all of our bonus episodes!

Jaksot(258)

An Officer and a Spy (w/ John Ganz) [Teaser]

An Officer and a Spy (w/ John Ganz) [Teaser]

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy.Roman Polanski's 2019 film about the Dreyfus affair, An Officer and a Spy, only recently made it's U.S. "premier,...

5 Syys 20253min

Frank Meyer, Inventor of Conservatism (w/ Daniel J. Flynn)

Frank Meyer, Inventor of Conservatism (w/ Daniel J. Flynn)

Devoted Know Your Enemy listeners will recall that, in November 2021, we released a fairly dense, theory-driven episode on Frank Meyer, the Communist from New Jersey whose exploits on behalf of the Pa...

28 Elo 20251h 45min

The Christian Right's "Wild Faith" (w/ Talia Lavin) [Unlocked]

The Christian Right's "Wild Faith" (w/ Talia Lavin) [Unlocked]

This episode was first published in October 2024, and has been un-paywalled following the death this week, on August 21, of Focus on the Family founder and influential figure on the religious right, J...

23 Elo 20251h

The Minority Voters Moving Right (w/ Daniel Martinez HoSang)

The Minority Voters Moving Right (w/ Daniel Martinez HoSang)

A major topic following Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 presidential election has been his gains with racial and ethnic minorities, a trend that's scrambled many people's assumptions about American...

18 Elo 20251h 27min

From Armageddon to Zionism — More Listener Questions [Teaser]

From Armageddon to Zionism — More Listener Questions [Teaser]

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy.Our mailbag runneth over! Unsurprisingly, we received so many excellent questions from subscribers for our most r...

11 Elo 20254min

Has Trump 2.0 Been a Success So Far? — And Other Questions

Has Trump 2.0 Been a Success So Far? — And Other Questions

It's been nearly a year since we asked our subscribers to send us questions for a mailbag episode—which they did, with remarkable thoughtfulness and intelligence, for our 100th episode back in Septemb...

4 Elo 20251h 10min

Trump's Epstein Problem [Teaser]

Trump's Epstein Problem [Teaser]

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy.Over July 4th weekend, the Department of Justice and FBI put out a memo essentially declaring "case closed" on th...

28 Heinä 20254min

How Republics End (w/ Mike Duncan) [Unlocked]

How Republics End (w/ Mike Duncan) [Unlocked]

This episode from January 2025 has been un-paywalled for your summer enjoyment...A stock rhetorical trope on the right is to invoke ancient Rome when talking about American decline—often making direct...

18 Heinä 20251h 15min

Suosittua kategoriassa Politiikka ja uutiset

uutiscast
aikalisa
ootsa-kuullut-tasta-2
rss-ootsa-kuullut-tasta
politiikan-puskaradio
tervo-halme
rss-vaalirankkurit-podcast
viisupodi
rss-podme-livebox
et-sa-noin-voi-sanoo-esittaa
rss-asiastudio
otetaan-yhdet
rikosmyytit
the-ulkopolitist
linda-maria
radio-antro
rss-sanna-ukkola-show-verkkouutiset
io-techin-tekniikkapodcast
aihe
rss-tasta-on-kyse-ivan-puopolo-verkkouutiset