Burnin down the house ...

Alex Kent for The New York Times

As an American who served, what Trump did to the East Wing is both wanton and savage. This is desecration of the highest order. I'm pretty flexible in thought and accommodating when the new has to replace the old but not this. Bill Clinton said it best. Bill Clinton once called the White House movie theater the ‘best perk’ of the job. It was destroyed this week. Anger does not begin to describe just how much I detest Trump and the administration he allegedly "leads".

Before the orange cyclone hit town, Washington was a far more staid place.

Al Gore loved to host small dinner parties focused on scholarly topics. One dinner was devoted to the meaning of metaphor. “I l-i-i-ke metaphors,” Gore drawled to The Washington Post when he was vice president. “The more complex and arcane the better.”

What must Gore make of the unsanctioned, ahistoric, abominable destruction of the East Wing by Donald Trump? It’s the most remarkable metaphor we’ve ever seen in the nation’s capital. It’s not complex or arcane. It’s simple and visceral. It slams you in the face — metaphorically speaking.

“He’s saying, ‘I can do whatever the hell I want and you can’t stop me!’” said David Axelrod, who worked in the Obama White House. “In this case, it’s sundering history.

“If you worked in the White House, you have a reverence for every wall of that place. Tattered as it may have been, there was a dignity to it. It was a quietly stately citadel of power in America, not a palace for a mad king. Trump has a manic desire to tear down history and write his own.”

And this ...

President Bill Clinton (center left) watching Super Bowl in the family theater with governor guests and White House staffers in 1994. Dirck Halstead/Getty Images

One of the stars of the White House is no more.

The White House Family Theater, the movie theater which first came to be in 1942 when a cloakroom was converted into a screening room, was demolished this week as part of the destruction of the East Wing to make room for President Donald Trump’s planned $300 million ballroom.

From sporting events to film screenings, the theater provided entertainment and enjoyment to presidents and their families since the latter part of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency.

According to The White House Historical Association, Roosevelt enjoyed watching World War II-era news reels in the former cloakroom in the East Terrace at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, “and took special interest in the battles fought in Europe and Asia.”

The 32nd US president demonstrated an understanding of the importance of pop culture, including movies.

“Entertainment is always a national asset,” Roosevelt said in 1943 as the United States was engaged in WWII. “Invaluable in time of peace, it is indispensable in wartime.”

Burning down the house - Talking Heads

The irony of TH vs Trump, I thought so.