In a twist that connects past political scandals to present-day controversies, the Trump administration is currently building a lavish new ballroom at the White House, a project that has sparked intense debate. To counter this criticism, the administration has taken the unusual step of launching an official White House historical timeline that pointedly includes the Monica Lewinsky scandal, among other controversies from previous Democratic presidencies.
This move has reignited conversations about the Clinton-Lewinsky affair, a chapter that both Donald Trump and the key figures involved have viewed in strikingly different lights over the years. The situation ties together a current political spat with one of the most infamous scandals in American history.
The new White House State Ballroom, a planned 90,000-square-foot expansion, is designed to be a grand space for formal events, with a seating capacity that has been revised upward to nearly 1,000 people. Funded entirely by private donors at an estimated cost of $300 million, the project involves the demolition of the existing East Wing, a move that has drawn concern from historians, preservation groups, and political opponents.
In response to Democrats like Hillary Clinton, who stated, “It’s not his house. It’s your house. And he’s destroying it,” the Trump administration has defended the project as a necessary modernization.
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A Scandal Revisited for a Political Jab
As part of its counterattack, the Trump administration released a “major events timeline” on the White House website. This timeline includes significant architectural milestones but also features a slide dedicated to the 1998 Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, describing it as “White House perjury investigations” fueled by “Oval Office trysts.” This official recasting of the scandal serves to remind the public of a fraught period for a political rival, directly linking past presidential misconduct to the current political fray.
The inclusion of the Lewinsky scandal is particularly notable given Donald Trump’s own evolving stance on the matter. Back in 2008, Trump dismissed Bill Clinton’s trouble over the affair as “something that was totally unimportant,” arguing that the impeachment effort was “nonsense.” However, by the 2016 presidential campaign, his position had shifted dramatically. He and his surrogates began to seriously consider using the scandal against his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.
Hillary Clinton: “It’s not his house. It’s your house. And he’s destroying it.”
Donald Trump: “I may name it the Monica Lewinsky ballroom.”
— Video Forensics (@Video_Forensics) October 24, 2025
During the 2016 campaign, Trump asserted that “Hillary Clinton was married to the single greatest abuser of women in the history of politics,” and his surrogate, Rudy Giuliani, claimed he would have talked about “what she did to Monica Lewinsky.” At the time, Trump explained his earlier dismissal as a business “obligation” from his days as a private citizen who “got along with the Clintons.”
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The Lasting Impact on a Private Citizen
For Monica Lewinsky, the scandal was a life-altering event that transformed her from a private citizen into the subject of a global humiliation. She has since described the experience as giving her post-traumatic stress disorder and causing her to struggle with suicidal thoughts. In the decades since, she has reinvented herself as a prominent social activist and producer, focusing on combating cyberbullying and public shaming. She has become a global public speaker, giving a celebrated TED Talk on “The Price of Shame,” and has worked as a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, using her experience to advocate for a more compassionate online world.
The ballroom construction and the subsequent political trolling have successfully fused a current controversy with a decades-old scandal. The Trump administration’s decision to feature the Clinton-Lewinsky affair in an official White House timeline ensures that this chapter of political history remains a live weapon in today’s partisan battles. Meanwhile, the substantial renovation of the White House itself, a building that belongs to the American people, continues to move forward, symbolizing for some a modernizing upgrade and for others an unwanted disruption to a national historic landmark.
This confluence of events shows how the past is never truly past in Washington, constantly being excavated and repurposed for the political fights of the present.
