President Donald Trump on Tuesday offered journalists the closest look yet at construction of his planned White House ballroom, even as lawmakers raised new concerns about funding the controversial project.
The ballroom construction site has been fenced off for months and unavailable to the public; government workers in nearby buildings have been instructed not to take pictures amid warnings that it would be a security risk. But the president brought selected media members inside the project’s perimeter Tuesday morning, spending 45 minutes gesturing toward partially finished structures, showing off renderings and making proclamations.
“I think it’s going to potentially be the most beautiful building in all of Washington,” Trump said.
Photographers captured images of columns, pipes and a walkway — emblazoned with gold lettering reading “45-47,” denoting Trump’s role as the nation’s 45th and 47th president — wending through the project. The president also touted the ballroom’s security measures, including what he said were planned defenses against drone attacks, as White House staff offered journalists sandwiches and drinks.
“At the top of the ballroom is what they call a ‘drone gallery,’” Trump said, adding later that the facility would be “set up for unlimited numbers of drones.”
The White House declined to comment further on the president’s remarks.
Trump has said that he hopes to complete the ballroom by September 2028, calling it a “gift” to future presidents and the nation that will be used to host VIPs at the White House. He has touted nearly $400 million in private donations for the project, initially insisting that it will not come at taxpayers’ expense.
But even as the ballroom begins to rise aboveground, it faces a growing collection of potential barriers.
A plan to pay hundreds of millions of additional dollars for the security-related aspects of the project is floundering in Congress. The Senate parliamentarian on Saturday rejected a Republican attempt to include the money in a bill to fund immigration enforcement, and GOP lawmakers have been seeking to rewrite the provision.
Even if the language passes muster with the parliamentarian, most Democrats and some Republicans have said they oppose the idea of using taxpayer money on Trump’s project.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) — who lost his Senate primary Saturday after Trump urged his supporters to unseat him — said Tuesday he was against the ballroom funding plan, Notus reported. Cassidy’s spokespeople did not immediately respond to questions about the senator’s stance on ballroom funding.
Meanwhile, a legal challenge is threatening to halt construction. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon has twice rejected the White House’s arguments that the ballroom must be built as a national-security measure. He allowed the administration to move ahead with belowground security work but ordered a pause on the aboveground ballroom until Congress formally authorizes the project. A federal appeals panel stayed Leon’s order and is set to hear arguments in the case on June 5.
Most Americans also remain opposed to the idea of building an expansive ballroom on the White House’s grounds. Fifty-six percent of Americans oppose Trump’s decision to tear down the White House’s East Wing to make way for his planned ballroom, funded by private donations, while 28 percent support the project, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll conducted last month.
The unpopular project has become a mainstay of Democrats’ speeches and campaign messaging ahead of November’s midterm elections, with Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) mocking “ballroom Republicans” who have sought to secure funding for Trump’s changes to the White House and around Washington.
Trump has long believed that he is the best salesman for his ideas, dating back to his time as a real estate entrepreneur. So the president on Tuesday returned to a familiar role: pitching a construction project as a crowd of reporters looked on.
“The thing I do best in life is build,” Trump said. “I’m a great builder, and I build beautiful product.”
In his remarks, Trump appeared to divulge new details about the national security aspects of the project, including the depth of the military and security facility set to be under the White House’s new East Wing.
“This goes down six stories, because it’s already been built,” the president said, gesturing to the construction behind him. (Asked about Trump’s remarks on the building’s depth, the White House declined to comment.) He touted a planned “military hospital” and “research facilities” set to be under the White House too.
Trump also spoke about other efforts to secure the facility, such as installing air-conditioning equipment within the building’s frame rather than placing it in the typical site on the roof.
“We don’t have any air-conditioning equipment up there because we don’t want anything coming down through the pipes,” the president said.
But much of the session involved Trump bragging about the project and comparing it to another landmark of Washington.
“I always admired the facade of the Supreme Court. I said, ‘I wonder if that can be duplicated or bettered, even not to say bettered but even bettered,’” Trump told the assembled journaliss. “And we’ve actually bettered it. What we’re doing is something that will, you’ll never see it again.”
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