Construction crews tore down the outside wall of the East Wing of the White House on Monday to build President Donald Trump’s desired ballroom.
Trump announced one of his most ambitious construction projects of his second term in late July — a 90,000-square-foot ballroom, slated to cost roughly $200 million, though none of it will come from government coffers. A backhoe began tearing down the East Wing’s facade on Monday, the section of the White House typically reserved for the first lady and her staff.
The president hailed the groundbreaking in a Truth Social post, writing, “I am pleased to announce that ground has been broken on the White House grounds to build the new, big, beautiful White House Ballroom. Completely separate from the White House itself, the East Wing is being fully modernized as part of this process, and will be more beautiful than ever when it is complete!
“For more than 150 years, every President has dreamt about having a Ballroom at the White House to accommodate people for grand parties, State Visits, etc. I am honored to be the first President to finally get this much-needed project underway — with zero cost to the American Taxpayer! The White House Ballroom is being privately funded by many generous Patriots, Great American Companies, and, yours truly. This Ballroom will be happily used for Generations to come!”
Trump pointed to long-running complaints that the White House did not have any space to accomodate large gatherings, an annoyance during some major state visits.
“This was the ballroom, and this room holds 88 people,” he said at an event earlier in the day. “The new one will hold 999 people. I say 999 because I didn’t want to crack 1,000. I didn’t want people to get concerned because that’s getting big. But we’re going to have — we’ll have the most beautiful ballroom in the country.”
Trump detailed the planned decorations, saying it would flow well with the decor of the rest of the White House.
“The ballroom is going to be beautiful,” he said. “So you’ll have drinks, cocktails, everything on this floor, and then they’ll say, ‘Welcome to dinner.’ You walk into the ballroom, ‘Mr. Senator,’ and you’re going to see a ballroom, the likes of which I don’t think think it’ll be topped. It’ll be the finest, so it’s going to be a lot of fun. It just started. And it just started today. So that’s good luck.”
WHITE HOUSE WILL CONSTRUCT 90,000-SQUARE-FOOT TRUMP BALLROOM
The president has pitched himself as the natural choice to renovate the White House due to his experience in real estate and interior design. He has already demolished the Rose Garden and installed two new flag poles, but he believes his ballroom will be the finishing touch.
“There’s never been a president that was good at ballrooms,” Trump said in August. “I’m really good.”
