Four Things to Know About Trump’s New White House Ballroom

Construction on the Trump administration’s controversial White House ballroom with a price tag in the hundreds of millions of dollars began this week and has stirred up considerable controversy.

President Donald Trump and top White House officials said the ballroom will be a 90,000-square-foot, glass-walled space that “pays total respect to the existing building.” But construction crews were seen on Monday tearing into part of the East Wing’s facade. By Wednesday, the East Wing had been demolished, according to the Associated Press.

Images and videos of heavy machinery destroying the White House structure caused alarm online, but the Trump administration called the ensuing blowback “manufactured outrage” and accused the press of “clutching their pearls” while pointing out that past presidents have also made major renovations.

Here are four things you need to know about Trump’s ballroom plan as construction begins.

Trump said the new ballroom is needed so the White House has a large space to entertain guests. He has complained in the past that the East Room, the largest space on the property, was too small as it can only hold around 200 people.

Renderings show the new project looking similar to the gilded ballroom at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. The new space will dwarf the main White House: The ballroom is set to be nearly twice the size of the main residence and will hold around 999 people.

Trump told donors at a recent White House dinner that the windows on the property will be bulletproof and that the space will be big enough to fit a presidential inauguration if needed.

The White House has said the ballroom will be ready for use before the end of Trump’s current term in January 2029.

As will happen with home renovations, the cost of the project has risen as the project expands, rising from $200 million to $300 million.

Trump said on social media that the project won’t cost taxpayers anything because it is being privately funded by “many generous Patriots, Great American Companies, and, yours truly.”

As for who will foot the bill on the project, Trump has committed to using some of his own money, and the White House has released a list of donors to the project. The list includes large corporations like Google and Amazon, defense contractors like Lockheed Martin, Palantir and Booz Allen Hamilton, as well as the personal fortunes and family foundations of billionaires like Blackstone CEO Stephen A. Schwarzman and casino magnate Miriam Adelson.

An estimated $22 million will come from a legal settlement paid by Google’s parent company, Alphabet, after Trump sued the tech giant for suspending his YouTube channel following the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Past presidents have added and subtracted features to the White House dating back to its construction in 1792.

Major projects over the years include the addition of the West Wing by President Theodore Roosevelt, the addition of the East Wing by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the creation of the Rose Garden during John F. Kennedy’s administration. But perhaps the most significant renovations came during the Truman administration, when, beginning in 1948, the mansion was gutted due to structural instability and a balcony was added to the second floor.

Construction and major renovations to government buildings in Washington typically require approval from the National Capital Planning Commission, an agency in the executive branch.

Trump appointee Will Scharf, a top White House aide, now heads the commission. Scharf has stressed that the commission’s approval is not required for demolition, but “if you’re talking about actually building anything, then, yeah, it should go through our approval process,” he said last month.

Still, the process has drawn condemnation and anger from many.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation sent a letter and statement to the National Capital Planning Commission, the National Park Service and the Commission of Fine Arts on Wednesday, voicing “deep concern” that the project will overwhelm the White House and “may also permanently disrupt the carefully balanced classical design …”

The White House then said on Wednesday that it will submit the plans for review. A request for a response on the decision was met with an auto-reply regarding the ongoing government shutdown.