Trump’s grand designs for the White House
6/22/202624 min
The construction of Trump's new White House ballroom would make for maybe the best episode of Grand Designs ever made. The budget has blown out, a historic wing of the house has been demolished, and it's putting a strain on President Trump and Melania's relationship.
Sadly, Kevin McCloud wasn't available for this episode. Instead, Matt is talking to White House reporter for the Washington Post, Dan Diamond, who has watched, and heard, all of it go down.
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 10:00
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Patricia Karvelas0:05
[upbeat music] Hi, I'm Patricia Karvelas, the host of the ABC's politics podcast, Politics Now. The budget was the pitch. This week, the real test begins. Can Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers land their key measures, or will Parliament force Labor back to the negotiating table? We're watching the deals, the pressure points, and the political consequences. The final biffo before the big winter break. We'll bring you up to date on Politics Now. Follow on ABC Listen so you never miss an episode.
Matt Bevan· Host0:36
This podcast was produced on the lands of the Awabakal and Gadigal people. [upbeat music] G'day, Matt Bevan here. This is If You're Listening. When I was in Washington 18 months ago for the US election, producer Murray Adam and I wanted to film one of our episodes outside the White House. We had a bit of trouble, however, getting a shot set up, as construction for the presidential parade was blocking all our best angles. We ended up setting up south of the building. It was a perfectly good shot, but it meant that I had to stare basically directly into the sun and couldn't really read my teleprompter. These days, though, the level of construction in Washington is significantly more than that. As we talked about in our last episode, the White House lawn was recently home to a temporary UFC octagon to celebrate the president's birthday. The Kennedy Center was briefly