President Donald Trump fired back at Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., on Monday after the Democratic senator accused the president of focusing more on his White House ballroom project and traveling with aide Natalie Harp than on governing the country.
Trump was asked at the White House to respond to Ossoff’s assertion that the president was spending his time trying to “build his ballroom and travel with Natalie [Harp] on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar.”
Trump immediately responded by mocking the Georgia Democrat’s appearance.
“You mean Pee-Wee Herman? Pee-Wee Herman lookalike,” Trump said.
The president then defended the work taking place at the White House, arguing that the historic building had fallen into disrepair and needed significant attention.
“No, I would much rather do other things. We’re building a great facility here. We’re fixing the White House that hasn’t been taken care of,” Trump said.
Trump claimed the Oval Office had been in a “disgraceful situation” and said the broader White House complex had been neglected.
“The whole building, the White House was let go. The exteriors were falling apart. The columns were falling apart. The whole place was a mess,” he said.
Trump also defended his ballroom plans, claiming there had been an effort to secure such a facility for 150 years.
According to the president, the military approached him after he announced plans to build the ballroom and proposed using the opportunity to construct a facility deep underground.
Trump said the proposed military facility would connect to the White House and Washington, D.C., and described it as potentially “so valuable.”
The president also said officials developed plans for what he described as a “drone port” on top of the project.
“They came up with the drone port on top, which would be a major drone port to protect the White House and all of D.C.,” Trump said.
Ossoff’s criticism also drew far more personal responses from other members of the White House.
White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung attacked Ossoff on X, calling him “the biggest cuck loser in politics” and accusing the senator of “denigrating hard working people serving their country.”
Cheung also called Ossoff a “radical, extremist Dumocrat.”
White House spokesperson Davis R. Ingle similarly went after the Georgia senator in a blistering social media post.
“Jon Ossoff is a cringeworthy, feminine theatre kid cosplaying as Barack Obama,” Ingle wrote, before adding, “Nobody gives a shit what this lightweight loser says.”
The heated responses came after Ossoff took aim at Trump’s priorities, setting off another sharp exchange between the Democratic senator and a White House that showed little interest in letting the criticism go unanswered.
