Philadelphia's top prosecutor told a public gathering he plans to keep a chunk of President Trump's White House ballroom as a desk paperweight "after we blow it up", remarks that prompted the U.S. Secret Service to signal a possible investigation.
District Attorney Larry Krasner, a George Soros operative, made the comments Tuesday at George Washington's historic home in Philadelphia during an annual event focused on slavery history at the site. Video footage obtained by WCAU, the local NBC affiliate, captured Krasner predicting that within 10 to 15 years, the political winds would shift and the ballroom project would be demolished. He told the crowd he intended to own a souvenir from the wreckage.
The remarks went beyond the ballroom. Krasner called the president "a pain in the a**," then agreed when an audience member shouted back, "No, he's the devil!" Krasner replied: "He's the devil, all right, well there is some evidence to that effect." He went on to call Trump "the embodiment of hate," "the embodiment of ignorance," and "the embodiment of depriving people of their vote and their education."
The White House and the Secret Service both responded. Nate Herring, the Secret Service's lead public affairs specialist, told Fox News Digital that the agency "investigates anything that can be perceived as a threat toward our protectees" but declined to discuss specifics, citing "operational security."
Rather than walk back the language, Krasner leaned into it. He clarified that the demolition he envisioned would happen "in an official ceremony, just to be clear," and that old pieces of the ballroom would be sold as paperweights to reimburse taxpayers. He said he planned to have one sitting on his desk.
Krasner also predicted the slavery memorial at Washington's home would outlast any Trump-era changes. He told the crowd:
"This memorial will be here, the educational content will be here. People will be coming to see it, not for a year or two, or not even 20 years. They will be coming to see it as long as this federal park is here."
He then added: "There will not be a ballroom. There will not be a Kennedy Center renamed for a fool." Fox News Digital contacted the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office for further comment, but no response was described.
White House spokesperson Davis Ingle issued a statement defending the president's renovation agenda and dismissing Krasner's broadside. Ingle framed the ballroom project as part of preparations for the nation's 250th anniversary of independence:
"President Trump continues to implement long-overdue and necessary renovations to beautify the People's House as we approach our great Nation's 250th anniversary of independence. Thanks to the Builder-in-Chief, the White House will be properly glorified and remain in excellent condition for generations to come. Only people who suffer from a severe and incurable disease known as Trump Derangement Syndrome would find a problem with that."
The dispute over the Philadelphia site traces back to a March executive order Trump signed titled "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History." Under that order, the National Park Service replaced panels at Washington's historic home that had been dedicated to the history of his slaves, substituting broader displays of U.S. history. The site is federally owned.
Philadelphia fought the changes in court, and lost. A federal appeals court ruled the city had no legal right to dictate the content of displays at a federally owned property. Krasner's Tuesday remarks came despite that ruling, and he showed no sign of accepting it. The pattern fits a broader trend of far-left figures within the Democratic Party treating federal authority as something to resist rather than respect.
Tuesday's remarks were not Krasner's first public attack on the Trump administration. He has previously called the president a fascist and, in earlier comments reported by Fox News, said he would "hunt down" Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, a statement that put a sitting district attorney on record threatening to target federal law enforcement agents carrying out their duties.
That posture, a local prosecutor publicly vowing to obstruct federal immigration enforcement, mirrors the kind of conduct seen from progressive political figures who treat defiance of lawful authority as a credential rather than a disqualification.
Krasner holds his office in a city where violent crime has been a persistent concern for residents and where law enforcement resources are already stretched. Yet the district attorney's public energy on Tuesday was directed not at the safety of Philadelphians but at fantasizing about demolishing a White House construction project and selling the rubble.
The Secret Service's statement, confirming that it investigates "anything that can be perceived as a threat toward our protectees", left open whether Krasner's comments would trigger a formal inquiry. The agency's refusal to elaborate is standard practice, but the fact that it responded at all underscores that the remarks cleared a threshold worth addressing.
Krasner's conduct raises a straightforward question: what is a sitting district attorney doing at a public event talking about blowing up part of the White House? Even with his after-the-fact clarification, that he meant an "official ceremony", the language was reckless for any public official, let alone one who holds prosecutorial power and has a professional obligation to model respect for the rule of law.
The executive order Krasner was protesting dealt with historical displays at a federally owned site. A federal court already settled the legal question in the government's favor. Krasner's response was not to accept the ruling or pursue further legal remedies but to stand before a crowd and describe, in vivid terms, the destruction of a presidential building project. That is not dissent. It is the kind of inflammatory political performance that a growing number of progressive political operatives seem to believe carries no consequences.
Meanwhile, the broader trend of left-leaning officials openly defying federal law and using violent rhetoric about federal property continues to escalate. When elected prosecutors spend their public platforms fantasizing about demolition rather than doing their jobs, voters are entitled to ask who, exactly, these officials are serving. Progressives who prioritize political posturing over their core responsibilities are not brave resisters. They are officials who have lost sight of the people they were elected to protect.
When a district attorney talks about blowing up part of the White House, even "officially", and the Secret Service has to weigh whether it constitutes a threat, the problem is not Trump's renovation plans. The problem is a prosecutor who has confused his office with a megaphone.
