‘The View’s Whoopi Goldberg Makes Up a Song to Slam Trump for Building White House Ballroom

The cohosts of The View weighed in on Donald Trump‘s new addition to the White House, a ballroom in the East Wing, during the show’s Tuesday, October 21, episode. As usual, Whoopi Goldberg kicked off the “Hot Topics” conversation.

“You Know Who is still bulldozing ahead with building a White House ballroom that no one voted for, no one asked for, and once again, it’s promises made, and promises broken,” Goldberg began, before playing a clip of Trump claiming that his construction wouldn’t affect the existing structure of the White House (spoiler alert: it has).

“That is not your building,” Goldberg pointed out. “You don’t own that building. That would be like me going over to Trump Tower and saying, ‘I’m going to build a disco. They wanted a disco in Trump Tower for hundreds of years!’ I mean, come on. You don’t own that building. That is the people’s building. You don’t own it!”

Joy Behar then jumped in to add, “Let’s sing it!” and the cohosts came up with a little ditty to taunt Trump. “You don’t own it. You can’t take it down. You don’t own it,” Goldberg crooned.

Behar then went on to call Trump a “one-man wrecking ball,” and called him out for defunding things like pediatric cancer research and the Department of Education, only to then spend millions of dollars on this ballroom. “People are losing their government jobs. It’s a bad look, right now, to be building all this gold, tacky, crap that he loves,” she continued. “I looked up the word ‘annihilist’ when I had a free moment. That’s what he is. He annihilates. A annihilist ‘would believe in nothing, have no loyalties, and no purpose other than a purpose to destroy,’ and that is what we are seeing right now in our country. It is not funny.”

Sara Haines agreed that the “optics” of the ballroom are “not flying in the face of the reality of the majority of this country.” She added, “He won on making the cost of living better, but inflation is up 3%, 74% of Americans say they’ve seen household prices increase by at least $100, the unemployment rate is at a four-year high right now. People are struggling to eat, and this is a wealthy ballroom, paid for by wealthy people, for wealthy people to come and dance in a ballroom. I know this is private funds, but I can’t help but imagine how far $250 million could go for families who can’t put food on the table.”

Sunny Hostin noted that the ballroom is “going to be tacky and gaudy, you know that,” and compared it to Mar-a-Lago, which she said is also “tacky.” Hostin continued, “This is a metaphor for what’s going on in our country. He is tearing down the house. He is tearing down the people’s house. He does seem to think it’s his house …”

This prompted Goldberg to pop back in with her song, singing, “You don’t own it!” Behar ranted, “He’s pooping on the American people!” and joked, “He’s going to dance in that ballroom? He can’t even walk!” Hostin also pointed out that the East Wing is usually where the first lady’s office and staff is kept, but noted that, “Melania [Trump]’s never even there, so…”

Alyssa Farah Griffin seemed to be defending Trump at first, but made sure she had a chance to finish her statement before getting backlash. “Presidents technically have the authority to do this,” she said. “Traditionally, they would run it before a presidential planning committee, so they’d adhere to the architectural integrity of it. I have fears that this might look more like a Florida country club than the White House. This is what I’ll say in defense of him, but let me finish my point before you interrupt. There is not a room in the White House right now that can host a giant state dinner. We usually do it in the East Room or the State Room, the capacity is about 200 people. Trump has cared, since his first term, that if you go to the U.K., you can have these sweeping huge dinners…”

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Goldberg made sure to remind viewers that these “huge dinners” take place in a castle, with Hostin jumping in to reference this past weekend’s No Kings protests by adding, “Yeah, the King’s castle!”

Griffin continued, “That’s why he wants to build it. My issue is the optics. Americans are struggling. The cost of living is not coming down. You have more unemployed Americans than jobs available right now. It feels like Marie Antoinette, like, ‘Let them eat cake.'”

Goldberg urged Trump’s donors to “better serve the American people” by helping pay taxes as opposed to giving money to Trump for a ballroom. “The presidents who have made changes, they have gone through all of the right channels, so people are aware it’s going to happen,” she pointed out. “You don’t just roll up with a giant wrecking ball.”

To conclude, she said, “The only thing that’s going to stop him is us. Thank God for the constitution, thank God for the law.” Behar interrupted to sing, “You don’t own it,” and Goldberg laughed, singing, “It’s not your building anymore!”

Former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre calls Pres. Trump’s White House ballroom project “corruption at its core”: “The people’s house is basically being sold to the highest bidder.” pic.twitter.com/0bQTXZK0pT

— The View (@TheView) October 21, 2025

Former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was the panel’s first guest, and she also weighed in on the situation. “There’s no greater metaphor for what’s happening right now in this country than watching Donald Trump take a wrecking ball to the White House,” she said. “It’s too obvious. You couldn’t make that up. When I saw that image yesterday, I was like, ‘That’s not real.'”

The View, weekdays, 11a/10c, ABC