White House: the tennis pavilion of discord

We knew Donald Trump’s overflowing passion for golf, here is now the First Lady’s for tennis. In either case, commentators on American politics are having a blast. A few weeks before the end of her husband’s tenure, who will be replaced by Joe Biden in January, Melania Trump presented a project she has been working on for some time: a brand new tennis court accompanied by a charming little pavilion in the gardens of the White House.

Like the presence of Donald Trump on a golf court at the very moment when the world learned of his defeat, such an inauguration at the very end of his mandate and the dubious need for such an investment, especially in times of health crisis, may have left more than one surprised. Thus the First Lady at the end of her reign suffered a real bad buzz. As The Independent explains, the fact that the White House decides to communicate around the event and to celebrate this inauguration was especially felt as ironic. “It’s perfect, people in intensive care will feel much better knowing that Melania has finished her pavilion,” writes a journalist from Daily Beast.

An expense that goes wrong

But the most edifying message is undoubtedly that of the journalist David Corn who cracked with a limpid: “282 345”. This figure is that of the number of deaths from Covid-19 at that time in the United States. If the project was funded entirely by donations, it seems to be out of sync with the needs of several million Americans. “How much equipment, tests, masks, resuscitation beds could we have had instead? “, An epidemiologist on Twitter is shocked.

Melania Trump for her part reacted by encouraging those who “choose to be negative and to question [son] work in the White House to take the time to participate in something productive in their own communities ”.