<\/p>\n
\u201cFor more than 150 years, every President has dreamt about having a Ballroom at the White House,\u201d wrote no one ever until Donald J. Trump posted the proclamation on his Truth Social platform Monday. <\/p>\n
The president\u2019s plans<\/a> to build the kind of venue that most Americans associate with Disney princesses, Von Trapp family soirees and let-them-eat-cake dynasties became a reality this week as construction crews began tearing down the White House East Wing to build Trump\u2019s 90,000-square-foot, $300-million ballroom (up $100 million from estimates it cited earlier in the week). When completed, the venue will dwarf the main White House, boasting nearly twice the square footage of the executive residence.<\/p>\n The first photos and footage of heavy machinery knocking down parts of the East Wing<\/a> on Monday triggered strong reactions from historians, preservationists, politicians and regular folk \u2014 all of whom took umbrage with the administration\u2019s unilateral decision to alter the 224-year-old official residence of presidents dating back to John Adams. <\/p>\n Demolition was underway on the East Wing of the White House before construction of a ballroom.<\/p>\n (Evan Vucci \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n The nonprofit National Trust for Historic Preservation has asked the administration to delay further demolition until plans for the ballroom undergo a public review process, arguing the massive addition \u201cwill overwhelm the White House itself.\u201d Late-night host Stephen Colbert used the opportunity to call out another instance of institutional destruction: \u201cWe\u2019re just nine months into Trump\u2019s term, and he\u2019s already going \u2018Hulk Smash!\u2019 on the White House. Last time, it took at least four years to bring a demo crew to the Capitol,\u201d he said, referring to the Jan. 6 insurrection. <\/p>\n In an official statement<\/a> posted on its website, the White House blamed the outcry over Trump\u2019s East Wing demolition on a Democratic overreaction. \u201cIn the latest instance of manufactured outrage, unhinged leftists and their Fake News allies are clutching their pearls over President Donald J. Trump\u2019s visionary addition of a grand, privately funded ballroom to the White House \u2014 a bold, necessary addition that echoes the storied history of improvements and additions from commanders-in-chief to keep the executive residence as a beacon of American excellence.\u201d<\/p>\n As if anyone but the Trumps \u2014 or the billionaires donating to his project \u2014 can afford pearls at this point. Trump says his ballroom is being privately funded by \u201cmany generous Patriots, Great American Companies, and, yours truly,\u201d and that the burden of constructing his opulent project won\u2019t fall on taxpayers. Good thing, because the bottom 90% is pretty tapped out.<\/p>\n Americans are struggling to keep up financially. Wage growth has slowed<\/a> as prices for essentials continue to climb<\/a> despite Trump\u2019s 2024 campaign promises to beat back inflation. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a> reports that, from August 2024 to August 2025, the price of meat, poultry, fish and eggs rose 5.6%, nonalcoholic beverages increased 4.6%, and prices for fruits and vegetables increased 1.9%. Though gasoline prices dropped, the cost of electricity increased 6.2%, and the price of natural gas rose 13.8%. Other notable price increases include medical care (3.4%) and auto insurance (4.7%). But who needs lighting, heat or their health when there are ballrooms to build?<\/p>\n Renderings of the site released by the White House look suspiciously like the gilded ballroom at Mar-a-Lago, Trump\u2019s private home and club in Palm Beach, Fla., with its gilded ceilings, imposing columns and ornate chandeliers.<\/p>\n The Oval Office and Cabinet Room have already been remade in Trump\u2019s image, with the addition of numerous portraits, busts and gleaming gold flourishes. The bathroom off the Lincoln Bedroom has also reportedly been redone, but how does one top the now-infamous Mar-a-Lago restroom, with its crystal lighting fixtures, marble floors and stacks of classified-document boxes?<\/p>\n Addressing Republican Party senators at the White House on Tuesday, Trump said, \u201cYou probably hear the beautiful sound of construction in the back. … When I hear that sound, it reminds me of money.\u201d At least he was honest.<\/p>\n The White House declined to give details on just who is funding the ballroom, and the opaque response raised concerns that the project may serve as a pay-to-play opportunity for those who wish to curry favor with the administration. The only known donor to date was revealed in court documents. YouTube is slated to pay $22 million toward the project as part of a settlement with Trump over his account being suspended following the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.<\/p>\n Trump expects the ballroom to be completed before his term is up, he says. But will he leave a glass slipper behind?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cFor more than 150 years, every President has dreamt about having a Ballroom at the White House,\u201d wrote no one ever until Donald J. Trump posted the proclamation on his Truth Social platform Monday. The president\u2019s plans to build the kind of venue that most Americans associate with Disney princesses, Von Trapp family soirees and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2109630,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2109629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Trump-tears-down-White-House-wing-to-build-a-ballroom.com2Fb62F912F68e58d3d4a5c8a4d2581ed3d.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2109629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2109629"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2109629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2109631,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2109629\/revisions\/2109631"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2109630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2109629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2109629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2109629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}