Previous U.S. presidents have built White House movie, music and game rooms, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, and outdoor putting greens and basketball courts.

So Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley thinks it’s pretty rich that Democrat heads are exploding over Donald Trump adding a ballroom – even as their refusal to reopen the government endangers food stamp recipients and farmers.

Hillary Clinton blasted the ballroom on X, complaining about Trump that “It’s not his house. It’s your house. And he’s destroying it.”

Critics blasted her in response, noting her husband’s salacious dalliances in the White House – and Hawley recalling that the Bill Clinton administration rewarded big Democrat donors with stays in the Lincoln Bedroom.

“The Center for Public Integrity,” the former nonpartisan, nonprofit news agency reported in 1996, “has determined that, since 1993, more than 75 Democratic contributors and fundraisers have spent the night in the White House — mostly in the Lincoln or Queen’s Bedrooms — as guests of President and Mrs. Clinton.”

“They did absolutely raise campaign money” off guest nights in the White House, Hawley told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham Tuesday. “They sold out the Lincoln Bedroom, pimped it out, you might say, to their donors and other people. Nothing that the Clintons say is credible, and nothing that the libs say is credible.”

“We can’t touch one shingle?”

It’s also a classic irony that the left is now posturing itself as a champion of a historic structure, Hawley tells The Heartlander in an exclusive interview Wednesday.

“I listen to all these liberals who suddenly have found a great love and longing for the preservation of American history,” he says. “It’s funny because I don’t recall them carrying a whole lot for our history in the last few years. 

“In fact, last time I looked, they were all climbing up every statue of an American leader that they could get their hands on and pulling it down to the ground. Thomas Jefferson, they tore down his statue. George Washington: tore it down. Theodore Roosevelt: tore it down. Christopher Columbus, they said that he was a murderer and a rapist and everything else: tore it down.”

Hawley isn’t exaggerating. Reports The Hill:

“A statue of Washington was torn down in Portland, Oregon, in 2020 during the Black Lives Matter protests while an 187-year-old statue of Jefferson was removed from New York City Hall council chambers in 2021 and a bronze statue of Roosevelt was removed from the entrance of the American Museum of Natural History in New York in 2022.”

“But now – now! – they say our history is sacred,” Hawley notes wryly. “We can’t touch one shingle at the White House or else American history as we know it will cease to exist. It’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard of. They don’t care about history. They just hate Donald Trump and the fact that he’s actually improving the White House at no cost to taxpayers. Not a dime is being spent by the United States Public Treasury. 

“They ought to be hailing this, but they can’t because they’ve lost their minds.”

Ballrooms vs. basketball courts

Where does a ballroom rank in usefulness, as compared to previous presidents’ additions?

“Number one, in terms of actual usefulness,” Hawley says. “And it’s not being done at public expense.  

“Those other projects often were done with tax money. We’re talking here about no expense to the taxpayers. The president is spending his own money, he says. And listen, I applaud him for it. 

“Listen, he probably won’t even get to use it. By the time it’s all done, who knows? But every other president after him will, Democrat and Republican. And mark my words, the Democrats at one point will be celebrating this and celebrating the ballroom, talking about how wonderful it is. 

“But this is right now. They are so absolutely taken with Trump Derangement Syndrome. They’re in the grip of the fever, but they just cannot help themselves.”

“How about our farmers?”

Hawley is set to challenge the Democrats’ let-them-eat-cake approach to the government shutdown – with two bills he introduced Tuesday to reinstate funding for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits – formerly known as food stamps – as well as “critical farm programs.”

He says Republicans should force Democrats to either fund those vital programs or explain to voters why they won’t.

“Well, No. 1, how about our farmers? I mean, they’re defunding all of our farmers. We’re in the middle of harvest in Missouri and many other states across the country. Our farm organizations, our USDA ag offices, have been closed. If farmers want to go get their loans processed that they often have to take out in order to get an advance to start thinking about next year’s crop, they can’t get them. They’re not being processed. 

“So, let’s have a vote on that. You want to defund our farmers? Is that what the Democrats want? You want no farmer in America to be able to take in his harvest or plant for next year? You want them to go bankrupt? You want all of our family farms in Missouri to go bankrupt? 

“Let’s vote on it.

How about food stamps?

“Here’s another one: Right now in Missouri, in the next few weeks, if you’re on food stamps, if you need some help supporting your kids, you’re not going to get it. You’re not going to get a single dime because the Democrats apparently now don’t want poor people to be able to feed their kids. They want to kick all of these people off of food stamps, off of their benefits. 

“Why? I don’t know, because they hate Donald Trump, I guess. So, apparently the new Democrat strategy is let’s literally starve people so that they can go on TV and talk about how much they hate Donald Trump. 

“We ought to vote on that. 

“And we ought to vote to pay every member of the military and every member of law enforcement, border patrol, ICE. These people should be funded. Let the Democrats explain why they don’t want our military to be getting their paychecks.”

Why hasn’t GOP Senate leadership already done that?

“We have voted on military and some of this stuff, but I just think that it’s time to get a little bit tougher and to make them take some votes that are a little bit harder,” Hawley argues. “I think it’s great to vote to reopen the government, but we know now the Democrats are not going to do that. They’re completely dug in.

“So let’s put them to the consequences of their choices. The consequences are that farmers are going to go bankrupt. The consequences are that needy people can’t eat. So let’s make them own that. I think the time has come.”

Hawley posted on X: “Missourians shouldn’t go hungry because of the Left’s incompetence. 

“Our kids deserve to eat.”