Former First Lady Michelle Obama told Stephen Colbert on Tuesday night that she feels “confused” and “lost” over what she described as broken “standards and norms” under President Donald Trump’s leadership.
Obama made the remarks while complaining about Trump’s White House renovations, specifically the construction of the new ballroom.
Appearing on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” Obama contrasted her time in the East Wing with what she described as the uncertainty of today’s political and cultural climate.
“The West Wing was work,” Obama began.
“It was sometimes sadness, problems, it was the guts of the White House, and the East Wing was where you felt light.
“That’s where children came. We had puppies.
“It makes me confused,” she said.
“I am confused by what are our norms, what are our standards, what are our traditions.
“I just feel like, what is important to us as a nation anymore? Because I’m lost.”
Obama said she believes each administration “has a right and duty to maintain the house, make investments and improvements.”
She added that “there were plenty of things that needed fixing” during her family’s eight years in the White House.
Without directly naming Trump, the former first lady appeared to use the ballroom expansion as a metaphor for what she views as a decline in the nation’s shared values.
“As a country, we have to decide what rules we’re following. I am lost,” Obama added.
“And I hope that more Americans feel lost in a way that they want to be found again, because it’s up to us to find what we’re losing.”
WATCH:
Selective Outrage Over Trump’s White House Upgrades
Obama’s criticism adds to the wave of media and celebrity complaints about Trump’s “Big Beautiful Ballroom.”
However, presidential renovations are nothing new.
Neither Colbert nor Obama mentioned that Barack Obama’s administration installed solar panels on the White House in 2014 or that his administration oversaw a $376 million renovation to the East and West Wings just three years earlier.
Past presidents, from Truman to Reagan, have carried out extensive upgrades to the White House complex.
They have also often faced similar scrutiny from Washington critics.
As conservative writer Rebecca Mansour observed in her essay “Trump’s Big Beautiful Ballroom Is a Gift for America in the Best Tradition of His Predecessors,” the backlash is more political than architectural.
“The current hysteria over President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Ballroom is the latest in a long history of Washington architectural naysaying that is as perennial as the Potomac cherry blossoms and as old as the White House itself,” Mansour wrote.
The ballroom construction, part of a broader renovation effort to modernize and expand the White House’s hosting capacity, has drawn fire from left-wing pundits but praise from supporters who see it as a fitting addition to the People’s House.
It is a reminder that, as in many presidencies before, aesthetics and politics are never far apart in Washington.
READ MORE – Obama Demands Crackdown on ‘Polarizing Voices’ on Social Media
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