Donald Trump has delivered a supremely anticlimactic reveal of the site of the new $250 million White House ballroom at an exclusive dinner to thank the people who helped fund his pet project.
Trump, 79, filled the East Room on Wednesday with cashed-up guests, including oil billionaire Harold Hamm, Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman and crypto billionaires Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, according to The Wall Street Journal.
There were also representatives from Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta and defense and aerospace manufacturer Lockheed Martin. During the dinner, Trump talked up the architectural designs for the ballroom and noted that the renovations were already happening outside right behind his podium.
The dinner will help “Establish the Magnificent White House Ballroom,” according to a copy of the invitation reviewed by The Journal.
“Should I show you? I guess maybe so they can see, right?” Trump mused, before instructing someone else to open the curtains behind him.
After the build-up, Trump’s big reveal turned out to be seriously low-impact. Through the small panels of the glass double doors, the influential guests got a glimpse of a construction site illuminated by industrial lighting–and not much else.
“We don’t really want you to walk on there but you can take a look if you want,” Trump said.
.@POTUS opens the curtains to show off construction of the new ballroom (which is NOT paid for by taxpayers!) 🤣 pic.twitter.com/85Dd0jdlV0
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 15, 2025
He then pointed at tiny toy-sized models of his latest plans for the White House including a replica of the future ballroom. “We’ve already started excavation,” Trump said. “I’m very good at building things on time and on budget.”
While the White House announced the plans for the ballroom in July, Trump did not give any indication when it will be finished. The official statement said “it is expected to be completed long before the end of President Trump’s term.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
At one point, after a rambling speech where Trump again complained about not getting the Nobel Prize, the curtain was discreetly closed.
The president also talked up his skills as he thanked the “legends” in the room.
“That’s why we’re here to celebrate you, because you’ve given tremendous amounts of money to see a ballroom built for the first time at the White House,” Trump said. “For 150 years plus they’ve wanted a ballroom and it never happened because they never had a real estate person.”
Trump made sure to call out his “really, really generous” friends in the room.
“A couple of you sitting here [were] saying, ‘Uh, sir, would $25 million be appropriate?’ I said, ‘I’ll take it’. You know, it doesn’t take too many 25[million]s to get it done, but a lot of I mean, a lot of you were have been really fantastic.”
He revealed the ballroom will be big enough to hold “literally the inauguration if we want” and the exterior design will feature four sides of “beautiful glass” which will all be bulletproof.
He also said it will have a capacity of 999 people, which has upsized from 650 people in July and 900 last month.
Trump also told the diners the ballroom is now “fully financed.”
“It’s fully taken care of now, and in fact, we’ll have money left over and we’ll use that for something.”
Trump also referenced his Presidential Hall of Fame during the diner, with the audience laughing at his “controversial” portrait of President Joe Biden being represented by a photo of an auto-pen.
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