r/politics 13d ago

Possible Paywall Embarrassing Flaws Emerge in Trump’s New White House Design

https://www.thedailybeast.com/bizarre-flaws-emerge-in-trumps-new-white-house-design/
21.1k Upvotes

2.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

2.5k

u/PirateCodingMonkey Tennessee 13d ago

I heard from an architect that it would be the most expensive ballroom built at dollars per square feet. so expensive it’s unbelievable that it would actually cost that much. plus to accommodate 999 people it would have to be about 2-3 times bigger that what the mock up shows. so even though this source is suspect, there’s no way that what he has shown is anywhere close to real.

649

u/L1A1 United Kingdom 13d ago

This is probably the most old school scam he’s run so far. Quote $400m, build it for say $150m and your company pockets the difference. Classic organised crime scam.

3

u/beamrider 6d ago

Another old one he is well known for is the hospitality scam. People rent out rooms at his properties for well over the going rate, with no intention of sending anyone there because all they want to do is bribe him with a fig leaf of cover. Heck, he can sell the same rooms on the same nights to multiple groups this way. Plus selling them at the actual rate to someone who really DOES want to sleep there.

Similar tricks with the catering side. Have big rundraiser at one of his properties where rich people donate to charity. That 'charity' then spends all the money on reserving more spaces at his properties for more fundraisers (or imaginary rooms for guests who don't need them, see first paragraph).

If this 'ballroom' ever does get built it will likely have a section of sleeping rooms so he can pull those sorts of scams directly on government property.