Donald Trump is apparently drawing inspiration for his planned $300 million White House ballroom from the self-proclaimed Queen of Versailles herself.
Jackie Siegel—the reality star and widow of the late timeshare mogul David Siegel, best known for her two-decade saga of building one of the largest and most expensive private residences in the United States—shared new details about the renovation of the couple’s 90,000-square-foot Versailles House in Windermere, Florida, during an interview with The Independent published Wednesday.
The 59-year-old revealed that the president has taken a particular interest in the property—rumored to cost about $100 million to complete—and its décor.
“This is my living room,” Siegel said while showing a photo of the nearly completed space, featuring floor-to-ceiling windows, two winding staircases, marble columns, gold accents, and a massive crystal chandelier that she is barely visible beneath.
“So I showed this to the president and I said, ‘How do I look in that picture,’” she said. “And after seeing this… he says ‘I wanna come see your house, and maybe use some of [Siegel’s decorators] for the ballroom.’”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
Siegel’s husband of 25 years, Westgate Resorts founder and CEO David Siegel, had a reported net worth of $500 million. He died in April at 89.
It’s no secret that Trump shares Siegel’s love for gold. The president has boasted that he added “some of the highest-quality 24-karat gold” in the Oval Office and Cabinet Room as part of his White House renovations. His best-known properties—Trump Tower in New York City, the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, and Mar-a-Lago in Florida—all pay homage to his taste for the ostentatious.
Renderings of Trump’s forthcoming 90,000-square-foot ballroom show his gold obsession on full display, with gilded chandeliers, chairs, and metallic accents covering nearly every surface. The president even has a gilded remote.
In April, The Wall Street Journal reported that the president had brought in a “gold guy” to assist with the White House makeover. Trump himself told Fox News’s Laura Ingraham, “You’ve never been able to match gold with gold paint—that’s why it’s gold.”
Remember the golden rule of negotiating: He who has the gold makes the rules.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 21, 2013
Trump also shares Siegel’s affinity for massive chandeliers. A new book from Republican strategist Scott Jennings revealed Tuesday that White House staff were forced to intervene to prevent Trump from hanging a potentially damaging chandelier in the Oval Office.
Jennings frames the chandelier episode as part of a broader theme: Trump’s fixation on recasting the Oval Office and redecorating the White House.
“Trump’s redecorating is a metaphor for the way he has governed in his second term—adding new elements at such a rapid pace that hardly anyone can keep up,” Jennings wrote.
Trump began demolishing historic spaces last month to make room for his massive new ballroom, breaking a vow he made this summer to leave the White House as is during construction of his pet project. It will be privately funded by Trump and various billionaire donors, including Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Palantir—many of which currently benefit from lucrative government contracts or deregulation.
Trump’s multi-year ballroom project is due for completion in January 2029—comparatively swift next to Siegel’s mansion, which she said was “nearing completion” in her interview.
Siegel and her husband broke ground on the Versailles project in 2004. It has since been the subject of documentaries, a reality show, and, this month, a Broadway musical, The Queen of Versailles, starring musical legend Kristin Chenoweth as Jackie. (Siegel has financially invested in the show, though she reportedly has no artistic control.)
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