Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was asked by reporters to give her thoughts on President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project and his work to renovate the reflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial, which led her into a bizarre rant about how the president is out of touch with the average American. AOC kicked off her response by saying, “I think that people can’t feed themselves.”
“They’re having a hard time affording their groceries,” the New York Democrat, who once posted a video on Instagram asking followers how to operate her garbage disposal, continued. “They’re having an even harder time, in a lot of ways, affording their rent and mortgages. And why should this administration and this president, who has openly said that he doesn’t care or doesn’t think about the financial situations of everyday Americans at all, then try to take a billion dollars more out of our healthcare and put it toward the ballroom of people already struggling.”
AOC wasn’t done there. “It’s just deeply out of touch. I think it’s insulting to everyday people who are trying to get by on an honest day’s work.” The congresswoman isn’t the only person who is huffing and puffing over the president putting taxpayer dollars toward fixing up the Lincoln Memorial’s reflecting pool. The New York Times produced a hit piece against Trump for commissioning the project.
According to People, President Trump, ever the fighter, swung back at his critics in a 400-word social media post. The NY Times article described the renovations of the pool as nothing more than a “paint job,” to which the president replied, “They are now trying to justify Obama and Biden’s expensively botched attempt at fixing the long broken, unsightly, and unsanitary Reflecting Pool that NOW sits majestically between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.”
Trump, who hopes to see the renovations on the project completed by the Fourth of July, went on to write, “Now, along comes ‘TRUMP,’ who is asked by many patriots if I can fix it. The answer is a resounding, YES, and for a ‘tiny’ fraction of the cost!” The president then said that he partnered with the Department of the Interior on the project and that they discovered they could build a “far superior Reflecting Pool for 5 or 6 million Dollars, and could complete the project in 2 weeks rather than 4 years, for a ‘far superior’ result.”
The president then wrote, “This is not just a paint job,” going on to describe the renovation as a “deeply complicated work of smart and beautiful construction” that ultimately saved time and money. Trump then pointed out that both former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama spent “at least” $55 million on the pool, which “was a total mess for all to see.”
“The renovation of the iconic structure has faced legal scrutiny in recent days. On Monday, May 11, a non-profit called The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF), and its founder, Charles A. Birnbaum, sued the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service for changing the appearance of the pool without following ‘Congressional mandatory procedures,'” People went on to report.
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