White House announces new $200M ballroom as part of Trump’s latest makeover of ‘The People’s House’

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press WASHINGTON AP The White House on Thursday communicated that construction on a new million ballroom will begin in September and be ready before President Donald Trump s term ends in early It will be the latest change introduced to what s known as The People s House since the Republican president returned to office in January It also will be the first structural change to the Executive Mansion since the addition of the Truman balcony in Trump has substantially redecorated the Oval Office through the addition of golden flourishes and cherubs presidential portraits and other items and installed massive flagpoles to fly the American flag on the north and south lawns Workers are at this moment finishing a project to replace the lawn in the Rose Garden with stone White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt holds up photos of the planned new White House ballroom during a press briefing at the White House in Washington Thursday July AP Photo Mark Schiefelbein Trump for months has been promising to build a ballroom saying the White House doesn t have space big enough to hold large events and scoffing at the notion of hosting heads of state and other guests in tents on the lawn as past administrations have done for state dinners attended by hundreds of guests The East Room the largest room in the the White House can accommodate about people As he and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen held talks in the ballroom of the hotel on his golf lesson in Turnberry Scotland on Sunday Trump praised the space and announced it was what he envisioned adding to the White House The White House has yearned a ballroom for years but they never had a real estate person You know nobody no president knew how to build a ballroom he announced harkening back to his early career in real estate and construction He stated the Turnberry ballroom had been quite the success since it opened a short time ago That ballroom boasts a generous quota of up to guests according to the hotel s website I was just saying I could take this one drop it right down there and it would be beautiful Trump explained This is exactly what they ve craved The White House is pictured before President Donald Trump departs Thursday July in Washington AP Photo Julia Demaree Nikhinson The -square-foot ballroom stated on Thursday will be built where the East Wing at this time sits and will have a seated threshold of people The East Wing is home to several offices including the first lady s Those offices will be temporarily relocated during construction while that wing of the building is modernized and renovated reported White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt Nothing will be torn down she commented Related Articles Trump ally Jeffrey Clark should be disbarred over referendum effort DC panel says ICE says it has made tentative job offers to more than as hiring ramps up Pentagon pulls back more National Guard troops and leaves behind in Los Angeles Federal judges detail rise in threats pizza doxings as Trump ramps up criticism Ruling body to keep sharing key satellite input for hurricane forecasting despite planned cutoff White House chief of staff Susie Wiles declared the president and his White House are fully committed to working with the appropriate organizations to preserve the mansion s special history President Trump is a builder at heart and has an extraordinary eye for detail Wiles reported in a announcement Leavitt commented at her briefing Thursday that Trump and other donors have committed to raising the approximately million in construction costs She did not name any of the other donors Renderings of what the future ballroom will look like were posted on the White House website Trump has chosen McCrery Architects based in Washington as lead architect on the project The construction crew will be led by Clark Construction Engineering will be provided by AECOM