President Donald Trump’s long-envisioned plan to add a grand ballroom to the White House has deep roots — going back more than a decade before his presidency. According to a Wall Street Journal report, Trump first pitched the idea to President Barack Obama in 2010, offering to build the facility himself.
The Journal revealed that Trump, then a celebrity real estate developer and reality TV host, personally reached out to Obama’s top political strategist David Axelrod with the offer. The call reportedly came through MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski, who at the time had closer ties to Trump.
“He said, ‘You have these state dinners in sh—y little tents,’” Axelrod recalled in an interview. “‘I build ballrooms. I build the most beautiful ballrooms in the world. You can come to Florida and see for yourself.’”
Trump offered to construct a modular ballroom on White House grounds — a space that could be deconstructed if needed. Axelrod, however, was unconvinced. “I was thinking, we’re in the middle of a recession, I’m not sure about this,” he told the Journal. He said he suggested Trump contact Obama’s social secretary, but the conversation apparently went no further.
Trump’s ballroom proposal was consistent with his well-known penchant for opulent design and large-scale events. The Journal noted that he had “approached the ballroom the way he approached other building projects in the past — discovering how to control the regulatory process, or finding loopholes, to allow construction.”
Now, as president, Trump is making the concept come to fruition. Construction on the “Trump Ballroom” — a 90,000-square-foot event space — has officially begun, funded entirely by private donors. The cost is estimated at around $350 million.
Despite being privately funded and requiring no taxpayer dollars, the project has faced fierce partisan opposition — what some commentators have jokingly dubbed “Ballroom Derangement Syndrome” (BDS). Critics seem to have denounced the idea not because of the ballroom itself, but because Trump is the one overseeing it, suggesting that the outrage is driven more by politics than principle.
The ballroom will be capable of seating roughly 650 guests and is designed in a neoclassical style consistent with the White House’s historic architecture.
Even some of Trump’s political opponents have acknowledged the need for such a facility. The Washington Post editorial board recently defended the project, noting that both Obama and Biden administration alumni had admitted that the lack of a permanent indoor venue for state dinners has long been an inconvenience.
Under previous administrations, large state events were often held in temporary tents on the South Lawn, requiring dignitaries to walk across the grass — and sometimes through inclement weather — to attend. Guests were also forced to use portable restrooms during such occasions.
Supporters of the project have framed it as a long-overdue modernization of the White House’s hosting capabilities, bringing the residence in line with other major world capitals.
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Let president Donald J. Trump build this beautiful addition to our White House. If any democrat president were to do this, the liberals would endorse it 100+%. Our White House desperately needs a solid place for future dignitaries to enjoy. This ballroom will not be Trump’s ballroom. It will be everyone’s ballroom.