Kamala Harris has shared her unexpectedly explicit response to United States President Donald Trump’s $300,000,000 White House 'renovation'.
The former Vice President, who ran against Trump as the Democratic candidate of last year's presidential election, offered her views on his extremely controversial ballroom renovation project.
Now, there's been a whole load of outrage for months now, with things first kicking off in the summertime (31 July) when Trump's team first announced the renovations as part of his nine-figure plan to restore the White House, which included the controversial decision to adorn several sections of his residence in gold. Many have since branded the move as utterly 'tacky'.
In the initial announcement, the administration shared that a staggering $200 million (£150m) would be plied into the construction of a brand new ballroom.
Kamala Harris has hit out at Donald Trump's $300,000,000 White House ballroom renovation (YouTube/The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart) The subsequent backlash appeared to be twofold as some critics feared that the elaborate renovations formed part of
Trump's plan to
remain in the Oval Office for a third term, while others were astounded by the way the
money was being spent, especially after the
US government shut down at the start of this month (1 October).
Such backlash has only grown after Trump recently revealed that it would actually cost $300 million, a staggering $100 million more than originally forecasted.
And Harris is the latest to take issue with the situation, hitting out on Jon Stewart's The Weekly Show podcast on Thursday (30 October): "I mean, are you f*cking kidding me?"
Her statement came as she accused the 79-year-old Republican of prioritising the renovations despite the government shutdown threatening the distribution of food aid benefits.
"This guy wants to create a ballroom for his rich friends while completely turning a blind eye to the fact that babies are going to starve when the SNAP benefits end in just hours from now. Come on," she added.
Harris continued: “I’m not going to be distracted by, 'Oh, does the guy have a big f*cking hammer?' What about those babies?"
As she noted, the ballroom renovation - which voters never asked for and Congress never officially approved - is steaming ahead just as federal food assistance, which around 40 million low-income Americans rely on, is set to lapse due to the government shutdown.
According to a White House Office of Management and Budget memo, the ballroom's construction is being privately funded by Trump and other private donors, meaning it is not impacted by the federal budget negotiations that brought about the shutdown, reports PEOPLE.