Former Trump White House Lawyer Ty Cobb Says President Is Turning the Building Into Las Vegas

Former White House lawyer Ty Cobb criticized President Donald Trump's ongoing $400 million White House ballroom construction project, stating that the historic building is turning into a “combination of a w----house and Las Vegas.”

Cobb made the comments to CNN’s Erin Burnett on OutFront following a 5–4 Supreme Court decision that allowed the controversial architectural modifications to proceed.

He lamented the heavy use of gold and paving, describing the physical transformation of the executive mansion as a "tragedy.”

The high court cleared the way for construction to continue by ruling 5–4 that the National Trust for Historic Preservation likely lacked standing to block the project.

Chief Justice John Roberts broke ranks to join three liberal justices, writing that the White House's "symbolism and history are wrapped up in its architecture."

“One of the other things that the chief justice said was, and I quote from his dissent, ‘The White House is an iconic American building whose symbolism and history are wrapped up in its architecture,'” Burnett stated. “That is, in a sense, a non-legal statement, right? That is a statement that’s somehow more profound than that.”

Cobb replied, “Yeah, very much so. I mean, it certainly touched me because, as somebody who had spent a lot of time in the White House and in or about the grounds, you know, it was a beautiful setting and a historic setting. And it’s, you know, it’s turning into some combination of a w----house and Las Vegas at this stage of the game with all the golden paving of it. So, it’s tragic what’s going on. But sadly, it’s gonna continue, at least for the time being.”

The project involves a massive 90,000-square-foot ballroom that will dwarf the 55,000-square-foot main historic structure.

Beyond the ballroom, modifications include replacing the Rose Garden lawn with a Mar-a-Lago-style patio, demolishing the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, and installing a helipad on the South Lawn.

Cobb has shifted from a White House insider to one of Trump's fiercest public critics, frequently calling the president “evil” and “clearly insane” while sounding alarms over a second-term lack of governing "guardrails.”

In a broad media interview, Cobb attributed Trump's increasingly erratic, impulsive actions to cognitive decline.

He explicitly cited Trump's habit of posting unhinged memes between 2:00 AM and 4:00 AM, alongside reports of him falling asleep in meetings, as medical indicators of "frontal lobe illness.”

When asked by journalist Mehdi Hasan whether American democracy would survive until 2028, Cobb responded, “I’m not sure they survive it in 2026.”