The Elitist Media are feverishly trying to gin up a corruption scandal in The White House, while doing their level best to avoid reporting on actual corruption scandals that are happening as we speak. These omissions have migrated to their Sunday political shows.
Watch as ABC’s Jon Karl whines about the several beautification projects underway in the nation’s capital:
With multiple government services fraud scams ongoing, ABC News focuses on ginning Trump's DC renovations into a scandal. pic.twitter.com/XMRIeHv4GP
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) May 17, 2026
JON KARL: Elsewhere, the president says he’s making overdue renovations, fixing long, broken fountains at Lafayette Park. The cost of the project, currently at $17.4 million, awarded without competitive bidding to a company that had done work at Mar-a-Lago.
And over here in front of the Lincoln Memorial you have the iconic reflecting pool. And here is a project Trump has been very excited about. They drained the water from the pool, and they appear to be painting the floor of it, what Trump calls American flag blue.
At first, President Trump said the project would cost roughly $1.5 million and would be done in two weeks. The tab now stands at nearly ten times the original estimate, almost $15 million. Another no-bid contract to a company that had done work at a Trump golf club.
And finally, President Trump says he has big plans for what he calls the Trump Kennedy Center.
There is no doubt that this building and this area out back on the Potomac River looks a little bit worn and beaten down, could use a renovation. The sense is they might have much more in mind than a simple renovation.
The National Trust has also joined a lawsuit with several other groups to stop any Trump construction at the Kennedy Center without congressional approval. The administration says that work there will affirmatively fulfill the board’s responsibilities to repair and improve the center.
Are you concerned that the Kennedy Center could go the way of the East Wing? That they could actually tear down --
QUILLEN: One reason why the suit requests a preliminary injunction so that that doesn’t happen.
KARL: So, you are concerned that they could literally knock good chunks of the Kennedy Center down?
QUILLEN: We’d like that not to happen.
KARL: Yes.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STEPHANOPOULOS: Thanks to Jon Karl. The roundtable’s up next.
ABC devoted close to seven minutes of Sunday show time to the White House ballroom, the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, the proposed Triumphal Arch, and other various projects. Karl devoted lavish time to each, and found time to interview the CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, who is suing the administration over these projects. Additionally, Karl took the time to suggest that there may be some corruption afoot with the way the contracts were conducted.
There was certainly time on ABC to cover actual scandals in progress, like the Medicaid fraud schemes currently under investigation in places like Minnesota and Ohio. Ohio, in particular, has drawn no coverage from the Elitist Media despite Vice President JD Vance spearheading efforts to combat this egregious corruption.
Likewise, there was no time spent on the Department of Justice into the Soros-funded Fairfax County DA whose handling of egregious illegal alien crime puts the community at risk. Trump-deranged slop routinely gets preferential treatment at ABC. Actual scandals? Well, that’s (D)ifferent.
Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned segment as aired on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” on Sunday, May 17th, 2026:
DOUG BURGUM: Everybody wanted to have a clean, safe and beautiful Washington, D.C.. But if this president makes it a priority and personally says we're going to get it done for our 250th, then the word “vanity" gets inserted. (VIDEO SWIPE) FDR did the reconstruction back in pre-World War II. You know, Teddy Roosevelt tore some stuff down to build the West Wing. Were those vanity projects? No. They're still helping the nation today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Interior Secretary Doug Burgum defending Donald Trump's renovations across the nation's capital, including his East Wing ballroom. Chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl sat down with the woman suing the president to try and stop that project. It's her first interview since her organization filed the lawsuit.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JON KARL: It came as a shock back in October when, without warning, construction crews tore down the East Wing of the White House.
DAVID MUIR: Demolition at the White House, sources now telling ABC News the entire East Wing expected to be demolished.
KARL: A first step in making the massive ballroom next to the White House.
DONALD TRUMP: They wanted to build a ballroom at the White House. I think it will be the finest ballroom of its kind anywhere in the world.
KARL: The destruction of the East Wing particularly shocked Carol Quillen, the woman who is now trying to stop further construction of Trump's ballroom.
CAROL QUILLEN: The White House is an iconic structure in this country. How could it just be torn down with no warning or notice or consultation?
KARL: Quillen is the president and CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. She argues it was against the law to knock down the East Wing and to build a ballroom without congressional approval first. Trump has said he doesn't need that approval.
QUILLEN: I think we can all agree what should happen here is that if our historic resources, the most iconic structure in the country, is going to be altered in an irreversible way, more people should weigh in than one man, the current resident of that building.
KARL: He's a renter, if you will.
QUILLEN: He's a steward.
KARL: He's a steward.
QUILLEN: Right? He's a steward. He is responsible for what he's inherited. And passing that on to future generations. He's more than a tenant, I would say. He's a steward.
KARL: President Trump himself has called Quillen over the phone multiple times, she says to personally urge her to drop the lawsuit, a request the administration officially made in late April.
QUILLEN: He has expressed to us the desire of the military to have this project.
KARL: And have you urged him to go through a process to get it done?
QUILLEN: We have expressed our view that there's a legally required process. The judge has also expressed, look, there's a process. Go through the process.
KARL: And his response to the lawsuit, the Justice Department's response. He says that what your organization is basing this on is Trump derangement syndrome.
QUILLEN: I don’t know what Trump derangement syndrome is exactly.
KARL: It would mean you are absolutely opposed to anything Donald Trump, I think is how it would probably be defined.
QUILLEN: No, I don’t think that's true. I’m not opposed to everything he does. I don’t have a lot of strong emotion about him as a person. I just believe that any sitting president should follow the law and that we all have an -- we should all have an opportunity to weigh in.
KARL (voice over): The ballroom is just one of many ways President Trump plans to remake the historic center of the nation’s capital. At the White House, he has installed a patio on the Rose Garden, a door into the Oval Office and the colonnade with gold. He plans to paint the Eisenhower Executive Office Building white. Plans first unveiled to a startled Fox News host, Laura Ingraham.
LAURA INGRAHAM: But you’re not worried that’s like a big white blob.
President Trump’s most ambitious construction project is about two miles away.
It’s on this plot of grass, inside a traffic circle, just outside the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery, that Trump plans to build his arch. The size of the plan is staggering, 250 feet tall. That is two and a half times the size of the Lincoln Memorial. It is larger -- significantly larger than the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. And it is almost as high as the Capitol Dome.
The planned arch is so tall that this week the FAA announced it is conducting a review to see if it would interfere with air traffic in Washington. A group of Vietnam veterans is suing to stop construction because it blocks the view of Arlington Cemetery.
The administration says it will enhance the visiting experience for Arlington National Cemetery for veterans, the families of the fallen and all Americans like. This week it appears there was surveying activity at the site. “The Washington Post” reported that the Trump administration planned to start work there as an unrelated no bid contract already underway at the White House.
The Trump administration announced Friday a new plan at nearby West Potomac Park as the site of his planned National Garden of American Heroes. A proposal that raised questions about whether congressional approval is required.
Elsewhere, the president says he’s making overdue renovations, fixing long, broken fountains at Lafayette Park. The cost of the project, currently at $17.4 million, awarded without competitive bidding to a company that had done work at Mar-a-Lago.
And over here in front of the Lincoln Memorial you have the iconic reflecting pool. And here is a project Trump has been very excited about. They drained the water from the pool, and they appear to be painting the floor of it, what Trump calls American flag blue.
At first, President Trump said the project would cost roughly $1.5 million and would be done in two weeks. The tab now stands at nearly ten times the original estimate, almost $15 million. Another no-bid contract to a company that had done work at a Trump golf club.
And finally, President Trump says he has big plans for what he calls the Trump Kennedy Center.
There is no doubt that this building and this area out back on the Potomac River looks a little bit worn and beaten down, could use a renovation. The sense is they might have much more in mind than a simple renovation.
The National Trust has also joined a lawsuit with several other groups to stop any Trump construction at the Kennedy Center without congressional approval. The administration says that work there will affirmatively fulfill the board’s responsibilities to repair and improve the center.
Are you concerned that the Kennedy Center could go the way of the East Wing? That they could actually tear down --
QUILLEN: One reason why the suit requests a preliminary injunction so that that doesn’t happen.
KARL: So, you are concerned that they could literally knock good chunks of the Kennedy Center down?
QUILLEN: We’d like that not to happen.
KARL: Yes.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STEPHANOPOULOS: Thanks to Jon Karl. The roundtable’s up next.
