President Donald Trump is set to break ground on a major new addition to the White House: a $200 million, 90,000-square-foot ballroom. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt
announced Thursday that construction will begin in September, funded by Trump himself along with unnamed private donors.
Leavitt unveiled artist renderings of the planned ballroom during a press briefing, stating that the project will be completed well before the end of Trump's current term.
“For 150 years, presidents and staff have wished for a large-scale event space on the White House grounds. This new ballroom will finally make that vision a reality,” Leavitt told reporters. “Currently, major diplomatic events require temporary tents hundreds of feet from the main entrance. That will no longer be necessary.”
According to the White House, the new structure will be located adjacent to the East Wing. The current East Wing offices—including those used by the First Lady, the military office, and the visitor’s center—will be vacated and modernized during the construction period.
The addition is the latest in a series of personal touches Trump has brought to the White House. Recent changes include the installation of two 88-foot flagpoles on the North and South Lawns, renovations to the Rose Garden replacing grass with pavement, and a gold-accented redesign of the Oval Office.
Renderings of the new ballroom reveal an opulent interior rich in gold trim, closely resembling the décor of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, which he previously referred to as his “Winter White House.”
During a recent meeting with European Council President Ursula von der Leyen at his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland, Trump remarked, “The White House has wanted a ballroom for 150 years—but they never had a real estate guy. No president ever knew how to build a ballroom.”
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles confirmed that Trump has held multiple planning sessions with key stakeholders, including the National Park Service, the Secret Service, and the White House Military Office.
“President Trump is a builder at heart with an extraordinary eye for detail,” Wiles said in a statement. “He is committed to honoring the historic legacy of the White House while creating a space future presidents and Americans can enjoy.”
The Trump administration has not disclosed a final timeline, but construction is expected to move quickly once underway. Photo by I, Daniel Schwen, Wikimedia commons.
