Trump’s incredible White House obsession: “It was going to cost about $100m... I never got a response”
President Trump has big plans for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but the alterations that he wants won’t come cheap.
President Donald Trump’s brief trip to Scotland gave him the opportunity to host European leaders at his Turnberry golf course.
He met with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and finalized a trade deal with European Council President Ursula von der Leyen. During his talks with Von der Leyen, Trump took the opportunity to reference the enormous ballroom in the property.
“You know, we just built this ballroom, and we’re building a great ballroom at the White House,” Trump told von der Leyen.
“No president knew how to build a ballroom,” he continued. “I could take this one, drop it right down there, and it would be beautiful.”
It’s not the first time that Trump has mentioned the big changes that he has planned for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Now in his second term, Trump is eager to put his stamp on the White House and he recently told a group of athletes that he had been prepared to stump up the money for a renovation.
“I was going to build a beautiful, beautiful ballroom like I have at Mar-a-Lago,” Trump claimed. “It was going to cost about $100 million. I offered to do it, and I never heard back.”
Trump wasn’t able to get a new ball room made during his first term in office but his quest actually began even earlier. NPR reports that in 2010 Trump actually made a call to David Axelrod, senior advisor to then-President Barack Obama. Trump supposedly offered to build a vast, glamorous ballroom at the White House that could fit a thousand people.
“‘You know, you have these state dinners and you have them in these little tents,’” Trump reportedly told Axelrod. “And he said, ‘You know, I build ballrooms. I build the greatest ballrooms and you can come down to Florida to see them.’”
We haven’t yet had any concrete detail about what Trump is planning but there has been confirmation from his administration that a renovation is in the works.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “The president has a spectacular vision to build a big, beautiful ballroom on the White House complex, and discussions about how to execute this plan are ongoing.”
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