Why Trump is obsessed with building a White House ballroom

President Trump was preparing to hash out the final details of a trade deal with European Council President Ursula von der Leyen at his Turnberry golf course on Scotland’s western coast when he took a detour to boast about the cavernous room where they were sitting.

“You know, we just built this ballroom, and we’re building a great ballroom at the White House,” Trump said.

As Trump juggles multiple international and domestic crises in his second term, he is also carving out time to put his aesthetic stamp on the White House itself. And as a real estate developer turned commander in chief, Trump says he is uniquely positioned to make a major addition to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

“No president knew how to build a ballroom,” Trump told von der Leyen. “I could take this one, drop it right down there, and it would be beautiful.”

Trump has already made the Oval Office much more golden, added new medallions to the light fixtures in the Cabinet Room, laid paving stones over where the grass used to be in the Rose Garden, and erected new flagpoles on the north and south lawns.

But there’s one thing he really wants, that thus far has been out of reach: a ballroom.

“We are going to make and build a ballroom, which they’ve wanted for probably 100 years at the White House,” Trump said in May on NBC’s Meet the Press.

“We have three or four different concepts and we’re working with great architects,” Trump added.

The White House says no final decisions have been made, but aides talk about it in terms of “when” and not “if.” Trump told columnist Miranda Devine that he thinks construction could begin in a couple of months.

“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,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in a statement.

Can’t see the photo gallery? Click here.

Trump’s ballroom quest predates his political career

The White House ballroom is something that Trump has been talking about for at least 15 years, actively pitching himself to manage the project long before he ran for office.

“I was going to build a beautiful, beautiful ballroom like I have at Mar-a-Lago,” Trump told a group of female athletes gathered in the East Room for a signing ceremony earlier this year. “It was going to cost about $100 million. I offered to do it, and I never heard back.”

That offer went to David Axelrod, who was, at the time, a senior adviser to then-President Barack Obama. “An intermediary reached out and said that [Trump] wanted to speak with me,” Axelrod told NPR.

Trump’s call came in 2010, in the middle of a crisis. The Deepwater Horizon oil rig was spewing crude off the coast of Louisiana and Axelrod said Trump was offering to help. Once that situation was resolved, Trump called Axelrod again, this time with another offer.

“‘You know, you have these state dinners and you have them in these little tents,'” Axelrod recalled Trump telling him. “And he said, ‘You know, I build ballrooms. I build the greatest ballrooms and you can come down to Florida to see them.'”

Axelrod said he didn’t really know what to do with Trump’s proposal, so he handed it off to a colleague, and he said he regrets not closing the loop.

Trump wants a room that can hold a lot more people — and he hates tents

Trump hasn’t forgotten about that Obama-era slight. “I offered to build a ballroom,” Trump said in 2016 at a campaign event in Ohio. “They turned it down. I was going to put up $100 million to build a ballroom at the White House, because having a tent is not that good.”

Trump has said he wants a ballroom that holds a thousand people. The largest event space at the White House now is the East Room, which only seats about 200 for dinner.

So, when the White House needs more capacity for a state dinner, they go outdoors, usually putting up large fancy tents, complete with flooring.

“You have to make it so it doesn’t look like you’re just outside sitting on a lawn … the decor with the flowers and the lighting and the chandelier, to tablescapes,” said Deesha Dyer, who was White House social secretary in the Obama White House. “So, it’s a rather large operation.”

Can’t see the photo gallery? Click here.

There are many examples of White Houses hosting state dinners in tents over the decades. In recent times, Obama hosted several state dinners in tents, including for leaders from India, Mexico, the Nordic nations, and for a summit with leaders from Africa. Former President Joe Biden held four of his six state dinners in outdoor pavilions.

To Dyer, a big ballroom feels more like what you’d find at a Hilton than the People’s House. And with limited real estate, there’s a risk that plopping a new permanent structure on the South Lawn could obstruct the view of the iconic building.

“I’m not that tied to tradition, to be honest,” said Dyer. “But there is a certain kind of tacky that can kind of be put in there and that may, you know, cross the line.”

It’s not clear why Trump didn’t build his ballroom in his first term. But he is unbound in his second, aesthetically and otherwise.

“I think we’ve outgrown the tent stuff, right, don’t you think?” Trump said recently, adding with a laugh, “We’ll see if Trump will approve it.”