As MAGA Republican President Donald Trump continues to transform the White House into something befitting the Trump name—tacky, tasteless, and slathered in gold—Emmy Award winning actor William Daniels urged people to reflect on what they've lost.
Sharing a photo with Ken Howard as Thomas Jefferson, Howard da Silva as Ben Franklin, and Daniels as John Adams from the film 1776, the actor recalled performing in the now demolished theatre at the White House for Republican President Richard Nixon in 1970.
Daniels had starred in 1776 on Broadway, for which he earned and turned down a Tony Award nomination in 1969, before the musical became a film in 1972.
Daniels captioned the photo:
"We performed ‘1776’ in the beautiful East Room when Nixon was in the White House."
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In perhaps a reference to Trump's petty, puerile behavior—like denying disaster aid to states he didn't win in the 2024 election—Daniels shared:
"He was very gracious even though none of us had voted for him."
The veteran actor—who will be 100 in 2027—added:
"The current president has ripped a piece of history from our lives and we mustn’t take this lightly."
A few of Trump's MAGA minions were in the comments to defend their Dear Leader.
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Their comments revealed their ignorance of White House history, but they were just parroting the Trump administration's justification for the destruction.
The Trump administration dismissed widespread criticism of Trump's vanity project and destruction of the East Wing as "manufactured outrage."
They produced a "fact" sheet of renovations that Presidents made to the property over the last century to suggest this one is no different and give Trump's acolytes rebuttals for critics like Daniels, but actual facts expose Trump's ballroom as the self-serving tribute to Trump's ego that it is.
Washington D.C. is full of venues to hold state events. The White House was intended as a presidential residence and office, not an event venue or a palace like Trump's home, Mar-a-Lago.
The East Wing, like the West Wing, was built in 1902 during the presidency of Republican Theodore Roosevelt, making both structures 123 years old. The West Wing was heavily renovated in 1934 and the East in 1942 during the presidency of Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
To claim the East Wing dates to only the 1940s is like claiming the White House is just 73 years old because of the complete interior reconstruction done between 1948-1952 by Democratic President Harry S. Truman to modernize the structure and correct structural deficiencies.
But the White House is considered to be 223 years old. Construction on the White House began in 1792 and was first occupied by President John Adams in 1800. During the War of 1812, the British—which included Canadian based forces—burned the White House in retaliation for an attack against York, Canada—which became Toronto.
The White House was rebuilt in 1817, but isn't considered 208 years old.
Another major fire occurred in 1929, this time in the West Wing, which required extensive reconstruction. The West Wing was later expanded during the 1934 renovations.
WWII prompted the renovations and expansion of the East Wing, to cover a bunker and provide more space for war time personnel and operations. The space was repurposed again during Truman's gutting of the interior less than a decade later.
Despite Trump and his MAGA minions' claims to the contrary, both FDR's and Truman's renovations were heavily criticized and controversial at the time. But both proved necessary for the country and the preservation of the building, whereas Trump's ballroom is a convenience, but not a necessity.
Kate Andersen Brower, author of The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House, told NPR's Here & Now:
"The Truman Balcony was something that was really controversial at the time, and now it's one of the most beloved parts of the White House for the president and their family to be sitting outside looking out on the South Lawn."
"[Truman] wasn't going to take no for an answer, but he did go through the channels to get approval for this renovation. And we're not seeing President Trump do the same thing."
Priya Jain, chair of the Society of Architectural Historians' Heritage Conservation Committee, told NPR:
"In the list [of White House renovations] issued yesterday, if you look at it closely, all the changes after 1942 have been limited to the interior."
"And the ones on the exterior either involved simple restoration or minor site additions like the tennis court and the pavilion, which are limited by their scope, size and visibility to have any negative impact on the historic building."
People appreciated Daniels' post and stance.
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Demolition crews began wrecking the East Wing of the White House on Trump’s orders to make room for his ballroom to the dismay of preservationists and historians and a majority of Americans.
Brower told NPR a case could be made for expanding entertaining space at the White House, but:
"I don't think that it has to be of this size and scope, two football fields big and larger than the White House itself."
Unless it's just about making a very small man feel really big.
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