In the midst of war and the departure of a key Cabinet member, the president hasn’t forgotten about his swankly ballroom project.
President Donald Trump, 79, touted new renderings of his $400 million White House ballroom in a series of wordless Truth Social posts on Thursday as the administration battled another day of controversies on all fronts, from the president’s war on Iran to his termination of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
One image showed the interior of the 90,000-square-foot ballroom, complete with floor-to-ceiling arched windows, rows of gilded chandeliers hanging off of highly ornate ceilings, and a checkered floor.
Another image showed what appeared to be the ballroom lobby, with the exterior columns visible through the windows. The massive room was decorated in Trump’s beloved combination of white and gold.
A third image was a repost of a rendering that Trump first published last month, showing a view of the ballroom from the outside. The structure was replete with towering columns and an enormous staircase leading to the entryway.
“Two views of the Great Ballroom being built on the site of our wonderful White House — It is on budget, and ahead of schedule!” Trump wrote in a Feb. 10 post.
“When completed, it will be the finest Ballroom ever built anywhere in the World, one that has been sought by Presidents for over 150 years — and now they are getting THE BEST!” he said at the time. “Because of its unprecedented structural, safety, and security features, it will also be used for future Presidential Inaugurations.”
But it doesn’t look like the public shares Trump’s excitement over the ballroom.
The National Capital Planning Commission, which is overseeing the ballroom’s construction, received notes from more than 32,000 people to voice their opinions on the president’s vanity project, which required a teardown of the 123-year-old East Wing.
A CNN analysis found that around 97 percent of some 9,000 comments from the public were negative, and used words such as “gaudy,” “garish,” “ostentatious,” “obscene,” “hideous,” “disgusting,” “vulgar,” “cheap,” “low class,” and “travesty” to describe the ballroom project.
One public comment branded the project a “soulless hotel conference space,” and another called it a “fascist take on classism.” One commenter, who described herself as a longtime resident of the Washington, D.C. area, said Trump’s ballroom would be a “replica of his ‘gold plated lifestyle.’”
Even design experts were opposed. Kate Schwennsen, former national president of the American Institute of Architects, said, “If any of my previous students had submitted the proposed Ballroom addition to the White House as currently designed, I would have given them a failing grade.”
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