Is Trump’s Ballroom About to Expose Everyone at the WH to Asbestos?

Red flags have been raised over asbestos and other potential health and safety risks during President Trump’s demolition of the White House’s East Wing.

“Federal law requires comprehensive asbestos inspection, notification, and abatement before any demolition,” the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization wrote in a press release last week. “No publicly available information demonstrates that these statutory obligations have been fulfilled.”

Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey described similar concerns in a letter Thursday to the firm carrying out the demolition, ACECO of Maryland.

“The demolition of a structure of the age and historic national significance of the East Wing demands the highest possible standards of care, not the lowest bid and a blind eye toward regulation,” Markey wrote, according to ABC News and The Washington Post. “Construction workers on the East Wing site, nearby office workers and tourists, and passersby could now be at heightened risk of developing lung cancer, asbestosis, or mesothelioma from the inhalation of demolition dust.”

There is no safe level of asbestos exposure, and the fibers can stay in the air for days.

White House officials have neither confirmed nor denied the presence of asbestos—which is very common in older structures like the White House—but have said that a “very extensive abatement and remediation assessment was followed, complying with all applicable federal standards.” They also say that “any hazardous material abatement was done in September.”

But ADAO President Linda Reinstein says she’s seen zero public information that would confirm that. “I am deeply concerned for White House staff and others working in or near the East Wing demolition site,” she said. “It remains unclear what measures have been taken to ensure the safe removal of deadly asbestos and other hazardous materials.”

The White House last underwent major reconstruction in the 1940s and 1950s, when asbestos use was at its highest.

A 33-year-old DOGE employee was tapped to run the U.S. Navy’s science and technology arm, though she appears to have no experience with the U.S. Navy, science, or technology, The Bulwark reported Thursday.

Dr. Rachel Riley was chosen to replace Rear Admiral Kurt Rothenhaus as chief of naval research, where he has served since 2023. The Office of Naval Research is responsible for disbursing billions of dollars in grants and contracts to benefit the Navy, and has historically been led by an active duty flag officer, according to USNI News.

Riley previously worked as a partner at McKinsey & Company, and completed a Ph.D. in social policy and an M.Sc. in contemporary Chinese from Oxford, according to her LinkedIn. She joined the ranks at DOGE and was assigned to the Department of Health and Human Services, where Politico reported she pushed for massive layoffs earlier this year.

A Navy spokesperson told USNI that Riley “brings deep acquisition, technology, and organizational expertise to the job, and we are pleased to welcome her to the team. We thank Rear Adm. Rothenhaus for his service as he is enroute to his next assignment. We do not have additional information to share at this time.”

Former naval aviator Senator Mark Kelly, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told The Bulwark that Riley was an unorthodox pick. “Usually the head of Naval Research is a very senior member of the military or the senior executive service with an extensive experience in technology, science, engineering,” he said. “That’s the kind of person we put in that job. So I think it’ll be important to see—and I don’t have a lot of information on this nominee’s background—but I do know it’s somebody rather junior who came from the world of DOGE.”

President Donald Trump has his own tenuous understanding of naval technology. Earlier this week, the president ranted about how he wanted to resume using steam catapults instead of electric catapults on aircraft carriers because he loves the way the steam looks pouring off the deck. Meanwhile, the maintenance on steam catapults is considered labor intensive and costly, compared to newer models.

Trump has previously claimed the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System doesn’t work, though there is no evidence that this is true. In January 2024, Trump baselessly claimed that magnets stop working when placed in water, and therefore were a stupid thing to put on a boat.

The United States will resume nuclear testing because everybody else is doing it, according to Donald Trump.

The president announced in a social media post Wednesday night that America would begin nuclear testing for the first time in 30 years in an effort to be on an “equal basis” with Russia and China. Neither of those countries appear to have conducted any nuclear weapons tests since the world’s nuclear-capable nations adopted the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1996.

“The United States has more Nuclear Weapons than any other country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, though that appeared to be a lie. Russia has the largest nuclear arsenal of any nation, with 172 more warheads than the U.S., according to data from the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, or ICAN.

“This was accomplished, including a complete update and renovation of existing weapons, during my First Term in office. Because of the tremendous destructive power, I HATED to do it, but had no choice!” he wrote, though it was not clear how updating the arsenal had created more weapons.

“Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis,” Trump continued. “That process will begin immediately.”

The revised policy was shared mere minutes before Trump was scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, but the extended rationale came hours after.

“They seem to all be nuclear testing,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One Thursday. “We have more nuclear weapons than anybody. We don’t do testing. We’ve halted it many years ago, but with others doing testing I think it’s appropriate that we do also.”

Trump did not clarify where or when the testing would take place.

Nuclear weapons experts argue that Trump’s gambit won’t play out well for America. Beth Sanner, former deputy director of national intelligence, told CNN Wednesday night that it was a “bad idea” that would only serve to give U.S. adversaries a chance to further test their capabilities.

“Adversaries benefit more than we do,” Sanner told the network.

The dominoes have already started to topple: The Kremlin emphasized the terms of the nuclear armistice Thursday, warning that “if any country resumes nuclear testing Russia would follow suit,” reported the Associated Press.

The Trump administration’s mass deportation machine has skirted laws and challenged the American judicial system in the process. And at least one immigrant deported in that chaos happens to be a former Trump golf club employee, The New York Times reports.  

Alejandro Juarez, 39, was deported last month to Mexico without receiving a hearing in front of a judge, which immigrants are legally entitled to. Instead, after showing up to an appointment on September 15 at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices in Manhattan, he was detained, placed on the wrong plane, sent to Texas, and told to walk across the border to Mexico. 

Juarez, who lived with his wife and four children in Westchester County, New York, had previously worked as a server and food runner at the Trump National Golf Club Westchester for more than a decade. 

Soon after his deportation, ICE officials realized their error and scrambled to figure out his whereabouts, according to documents obtained by the Times. But initially, the agency told the publication that Juarez had not been deported and instead was detained for a 2022 DUI conviction. 

Juarez’s lawyer Anibal Romero was also left in the dark as he tried to track him down. He eventually received a phone call from his client, who told him, “I’m in Mexico.” When Romero showed up for Juarez’s September 25 immigration hearing without his client, he told the confused judge what happened, and an ICE lawyer in the court admitted that he didn’t know where Juarez was. 

ICE had to backtrack and admit what it had done, telling the Times that Juarez was “removed to Mexico early because he was put on the incorrect transport,” adding that the agency would bring him back into ICE custody while still working for his deportation. 

Meanwhile, Juarez’s family wonders if and when he’ll ever come home. His wife and three of his kids, ages 10, 12, and 16, are still in New York, with his 20-year-old son stationed in California with the Marines. 

“My 10- and 12-year-old children ask me on the phone: ‘When are you returning, Papi? We miss you. We can’t be without you,’” Juarez told the Times. 

Juarez is one of countless immigrants who are deported without due process, and sometimes even U.S. citizens are sent overseas by overzealous federal agents. Right now, all that stands in their way appear to be the courts, which are only able to slow things down. 

Even neocon Bill Kristol would rather have a democratic socialist for mayor of New York City than Andrew Cuomo.

In a Wednesday interview with Claremont College’s The Forum, Kristol, now The Bulwark’s editor at large, stated that the idea of “going back” to Cuomo, who previously served as New York attorney general and governor, would be “ridiculous.”

Kristol said he would probably vote for Mamdani in the general election if he lived in New York City, although he wouldn’t have thought to rank him in the primary. But the bulk of his ire was for Cuomo and the establishment.

“The idea of going back to Cuomo is just, I think, ridiculous. I think if it had been the first round, I would’ve voted for someone else and maybe wouldn’t have even ranked Mamdani, and would’ve had other people who were more centrist, liberal types,” he said.

“All these big shot, you know, finance types in New York, they couldn’t get behind anyone except for Andrew Cuomo. It’s really pathetic, in my opinion. So now they’re rallying to Cuomo with some of them, but I don’t have that much sympathy for that,” Kristol continued.

An ex-Republican like Kristol is, in theory, the exact kind of support that Cuomo would be looking for. The fact that he can’t get it from even the center right is an indictment of Cuomo’s lack of juice, energy, and integrity more than anything else. Kristol doesn’t even seem to like Mamdani all that much, but his disdain for Cuomo overrules that.

“New York is a huge city. [Mamdani is] not going to destroy it, I don’t think. He’s gonna set up five silly government-run grocery stores, I guess. I don’t think he even will do that [inaudible]. And so they’ll be fine,” Kristol said. “I do think the right’s reaction to Mamdani has been a little hysterical. He’s a very impressive politician. I don’t know that he’s going to be a very good mayor. He’s 33 years old, he’s never run anything. They’re good people who could work for him though, in New York. So, who knows? I don’t know.”

The interview has yet to be released in full.