Donald Trump has issued a cryptic message about his beloved ballroom following clashes between the president and the architect he hand-picked to design his vanity project.
Trump, 79, took to Truth Social on Sunday to repeat his regular claims that the super-sized ballroom will be funded privately and that the White House has “needed and desired” a ballroom for 150 years.
The president then curiously stated of the construction, “As long as we are going to do it, we are going to do it RIGHT.”
The mystery post follows Trump’s feud with James McCrery II, the architect he personally selected to design the ever-expanding ballroom.
While the president initially claimed the new ballroom would not interfere with the existing White House, the entire East Wing was demolished to make room for Trump’s inflated vision.
Sources told the Washington Post McCrery urged Trump display restraint with his plans for the 90,000-square-foot ballroom, that will dwarf the 55,000-square-foot mansion it will be attached to.
The ballroom has grown from a 500-seat room to one that will accommodate 999 people, with Trump now wanting it to hold 1,350 guests and potentially be big enough to host a presidential inauguration.
McCrery reportedly expressed to Trump the golden rule of architecture–an extension should not engulf the building it is designed to complement.
A report in the New York Times on Saturday said Trump had told builders working on the ballroom that they could ignore zoning, permitting or code requirements because the structure is on White House grounds.
The publication claimed McCrery has now pulled back from his day-to-day involvement in the ballroom, but was still involved in a consultancy role and remained proud to be working for Trump.
A White House official conceded that Trump and McCrery have clashed over the ballroom design but insisted nothing is amiss, describing the back-and-forth as “constructive dialogue.”
“As with any building, there is a conversation between the principal and the architect,” the official said. “All parties are excited to execute on the president’s vision on what will be the greatest addition to the White House since the Oval Office.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
Trump fast-tracked the contractors, including McCrery, working on the ballroom, bypassing the traditional government bidding process, according to the Times.
The report claimed the firm excavating the site for the ballroom initially quoted $3.2 million for the work, but the president pressured them to accept $2 million.
Trump wants the ballroom finished by 2029–his second presidency is due to end in January of that year.
The project is also yet to be submitted to the National Capital Planning Commission, the federal body responsible for reviewing the designs. White House officials insist the plans will be filed at “the appropriate time.”
While Trump has secured funding for the ballroom from corporate donors including Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Caterpillar, Amazon and Comcast, the CEO of America’s biggest bank, JPMorgan, has explained why it has not handed over cash to the president.
Jamie Dimon told Erin Burnett OutFront on Saturday that the bank has “an issue” and must remain cautious.
“Since we do a lot of contracts with governments here and around the world, we have to be very careful how anything is perceived,” Dimon said.
“And also, how the next DOJ is going to deal with it? So, we’re quite conscious of the risk we bear by doing anything, it looks like, you know, buying favors or anything like that. So, you know, do we do things like that? We also have policies. We don’t do certain things.”
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