- Trump’s White House Ballroom is under construction
- The $250 million project is set to be finished “long before” his second term ends
- Trump says the project is being completed without taxpayer money
President Donald Trump’s White House Ballroom began construction this week, with the façade of the East Wing being torn down.
The highly controversial $250 million project, which is being entirely funded by the president and private and corporate donations, will result in a 90K-square-foot ballroom, more than double the size of the primary, original White House, and will be able to accommodate 1,000 people. The former casino billionaire says presidents have long needed a larger entertaining space, with the East Room and its 200-person occupancy far too small for modern times.
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 said.
Critics say Trump is demolishing US history, as a major structural change of the White House hasn’t occurred since the late 1940s, when President Harry Truman undertook a “total reconstruction” of the interior.
It’s not his house. It’s your house. And he’s destroying it,” wrote Hillary Clinton.
Susie Wiles, Trump’s White House chief of staff, tried to calm worries about the integrity of the commander-in-chief’s residence.
“President Trump is a builder at heart and has an extraordinary eye for detail. The president and the Trump White House are fully committed to working with the appropriate organizations to preserve the special history of the White House while building a beautiful ballroom that can be enjoyed by future administrations and generations of Americans to come,” Wiles said.
Trump Ballrooms
The White House, of course, isn’t the first ballroom Trump has envisioned and built. Many of the real estate magnate’s global portfolio of hotels, resorts, and luxury estates, headlined by his Mar-a-Lago, have lavish, expansive ballrooms.
The future president customarily included ballrooms in his casino resorts when he built them in the 1980s and 90s.
The Trump Plaza Ballroom hosted various events, from boxing matches to trade shows. Trump Entertainment’s other casinos, including Trump Marina’s Grand Cayman Ballroom, also had such large event spaces.
The largest event space Trump ever built, however, trumps the ballroom project at the White House. When Trump Taj Mahal opened in April 1990, the Atlantic City Boardwalk destination had an approximately 175K-square-foot ballroom that was customizable to accommodate a variety of events.
Hard Rock acquired the property and reopened it in June 2018. The ballroom/event space is today known as Hard Rock Live at Etess Arena.
White House Specifics
In the future, the East Room, Trump says, will serve as a space where guests will mingle, sip cocktails, and taste hors d’oeuvres before being called into the ballroom for dinner. The ballroom will be able to accommodate 650 seated guests and 999 standing, big enough for an inauguration. The ballroom’s windows will be bulletproof.
Trump says the White House Ballroom will be finished long before his second term ends in January 2029.
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