President Trump made a stop by the White House ballroom to check out the progress and speak with the press. The ballroom, part of the East Wing Modernization Project, is meant to provide a secure event space with a large capacity for state functions.
Critics have long attacked the ballroom, falsely claiming that President Trump is 'destroying' the White House and wasting money. That's just not true, of course. He's creating an event space that will be used by every president who succeeds him, and one that will provide the security and space for the White House to host functions.
President Trump had a message for those critics today.
President Trump has a message for those whining about the size of the new White House ballroom:
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) May 19, 2026
"We’re right on budget, we’re right on plan. The only budget change would be that we doubled the size AT THE REQUEST OF THE MILITARY." pic.twitter.com/chqLKxOR4n
"It's a shield that will totally protect what's downstairs. They have a lot of things going on downstairs," the President said. "This goes down six stories. You see three stories, because it's already been built. This will be, very shortly, this will be in the form ... the roof goes along those lines."
"It's all protection, and everything goes together," President Trump added. "We're right on budget. We're right on plan. The only budget change would be that we doubled the size at the request of the military."
"We're right on budget, right on plan. Originally, we were going to build a much smaller room and it wouldn't have done the job. It just wouldn't have done the job. You have too many events. Like, we have President XI coming here. We have no place to put him. We had the King and the Queen the other day, and we ... ended up having a hundred people sitting in a very small room."
"Maybe, more important, is the safety element," President Trump continued. "This is a shield. It protects everything that's inside, everything that's on top."
He also reiterated that this is his gift to the United States.
'THIS IS MY GIFT TO THE USA': President Trump explains why the White House ballroom is essential
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) May 19, 2026
"When this is finished, my term ends shortly after that [...] This is not for me [...] It will be used for, hopefully, hundreds of years for other presidents." pic.twitter.com/HGEy2BOFmM
"When this is finished, my term ends shortly after that," President Trump said. "This is really for other presidents. This is not for me. This is my gift to the United States of America. I'm going to be able to use it very little because, when it's finished, we're talking about six or seven months."
"But it will be used for, hopefully, hundreds of years for other presidents. And there will never be anything like this built again. There will never be anything like this built again," the President added. "As an example, if we have the White House Correspondents' Dinner here, we'd have no problem."
The ballroom, which will be about 90,000 square feet in size, will be able to accommodate up to 1,000 people and is scheduled to finish construction by September, 2028.