WASHINGTON — It’s the ballroom blitz.
President Trump announced that the prized new White House ballroom he is adding will actually be more spacious than initially planned, with a capacity of up to about 900 people, marking a 40% increase.
“We’re making it a little bigger. It will be top of the line, as good as it can get anywhere in the world,” Trump told NBC News during a recent phone interview.
Back in July, when the White House first unveiled plans for a new ballroom, it claimed the capacity would be 650 people — 90,000 square feet — and put its estimated price tag at $200 million.
Trump has suggested that he will tap into his own coffers to help foot the bill for construction of the new ballroom alongside outside donors whom he dubbed “patriots.”
Construction crews have already arrived at the White House to begin building Trump’s vaunted new ballroom.
“Right there you see all the trucks,” Trump told reporters last Friday. “They just started construction of the new ballroom for the White House.”
The 47th president has mused about the idea of building a ballroom at the White House for over a decade, including during the Obama administration.
The real estate developer president has argued that a ritzy White House ballroom is needed for hosting dignitaries and foreign leaders at the executive mansion. The current arrangement of using tents on the South Lawn for major events is inadequate, he said.
Throughout his second term, he has taken a keen interest in revamping the White House, including by adding a giant new flagpole on the South Lawn, paving over the grass near the Rose Garden, and adorning the Oval Office with a lot more gold.
Once completed, the ballroom will be the most significant overhaul of the White House since the Roosevelt administration expanded the East Wing in 1942 and the Truman administration renovated its inside and added a balcony in 1948.
The ballroom will be nestled near the East Wing of the White House and is expected to be finished off by early 2029 — just in time for the end of Trump’s second term.
During the brief interview with NBC, Trump, who is reeling from the assassination of his friend, Charlie Kirk, last week, called for national healing and faulted the “radical left” for stoking violence.
“I’d like to see it [the nation] heal,” Trump added during the call. “But we’re dealing with a radical left group of lunatics, and they don’t play fair, and they never did.”
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