Trump’s new ballroom adviser has been dead for 227 years

President Donald Trump shared AI-generated images and a video of himself with George Washington, whom he thanked for ideas on the White House ballroom, as his administration asks the Supreme Court to intervene after a federal appeals court halted construction on the $400 million project. Washington, who died in 1799 and never lived in the White House, is an unlikely adviser, and Trump's posts come amid efforts to shape his legacy, including a 'Trump 2028' meme despite the 22nd Amendment's two-term limit.

President Donald Trump http://salon.com/topic/donald-trump has apparently found a new adviser for his embattled White House ballroom http://salon.com/topic/ballroom : George Washington http://salon.com/topic/george-washington . Trump spent part of his weekend sharing a series of seemingly AI-generated images depicting himself alongside the nation’s first president, including one showing the pair writing with quill pens, another riding horses together and a short video in which Trump and Washington stroll through the still-unbuilt ballroom. “Thank you, George, for some of your brilliant ideas on this great Military Complex/Ballroom ” Trump captioned the 10-second video. Washington’s newfound role as Trump’s 18th-century architectural consultant comes as the president fights to continue construction https://www.salon.com/2026/08/07/trump-pitches-ballroom-as-military-center-after-appeals-court-halts-construction/ on the $400 million White House project. The Trump administration asked https://www.salon.com/2026/08/15/trump-cant-take-no-for-an-answer-on-his-ballroom/ the Supreme Court http://salon.com/topic/scotus on Friday to intervene after a federal appeals court ruled that aboveground construction could not proceed without congressional approval. The imaginary collaboration also contains a historical wrinkle: Washington never actually lived in the White House. Washington selected the site for the President’s House and oversaw aspects of its planning and construction, but left office in 1797 and died in 1799. John Adams http://salon.com/topic/john-adams became the first president to live in the still-unfinished building when he moved in the following year. Trump’s Washington posts arrive amid an increasingly public effort to shape his own presidential legacy. His administration is simultaneously fighting over the ballroom and efforts to place his name on the Kennedy Center http://salon.com/topic/kennedy-center , while Trump has repeatedly shared heroic and AI-generated depictions of himself online. On Saturday, he added another image to the collection: a photograph https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/trump-sparks-fury-on-the-left-with-meme-suggesting-hes-running-in-2028-things-are-going-to-get-really-really-bad-very-very-soon/ of himself wearing a “Trump 2028” hat accompanied https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/117101395583923690 by the declaration, “WE ARE GOING TO WIN.” The 22nd Amendment https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/amendments/amendment-xxii prohibits anyone from being elected president more than twice, something Trump acknowledged earlier this month when he conceded https://people.com/trump-says-law-very-strong-about-term-limits-12059355 that the law on presidential term limits is “very strong.” Washington, meanwhile, famously made relinquishing power https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/george-washington-s-farewell-address part of his own legacy. After commanding the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, Washington voluntarily surrendered his military commission to Congress rather than retaining control of the army. He later declined to seek a third presidential term, establishing https://www.mountvernon.org/education/secondary-sources/government-resources/saying-goodbye the two-term tradition eventually written into the Constitution. Washington’s legacy https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/the-first-president/ten-facts-about-washingtons-presidency has hardly escaped historical scrutiny https://millercenter.org/president/washington/impact-and-legacy . He enslaved more than 100 people at Mount Vernon, and historians continue to grapple with the contradiction https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/whitewashing-our-first-president/ between the nation’s founding ideals and the human bondage practiced by its first president, among his strong mythology https://www.americanrevolutioninstitute.org/video/first-among-men-george-washington-and-the-myth-of-american-masculinity/ . Start your day with essential news from Salon. Sign up for our free morning newsletter, Crash Course. But Trump’s latest posts appear less interested in interrogating Washington than in imagining him as a collaborator — writing, riding and offering design tips to his 21st-century successor. Whether Washington would have approved of Trump’s ballroom is impossible to know. In Trump’s AI-generated version of history, however, George has apparently already signed off.