President Donald Trump kicked off his speech at a Black History Month event at the White House by bragging about his new ballroom.
“This is a nice full room,” Trump began soon after taking the podium. “You know, we have a ballroom being built right now, so in about a year and a half we’ll be able to have, I’d say, ten times the number.”
“You could invite some friends who couldn’t make it today, because frankly, this was a sold-out crowd, has been ever since I’ve been president, every year it’s been sold out,” he continued before returning to the topic of his $400 million ballroom, which is currently under construction in the East Wing.
“There’s your knockout panel, for those that are interested,” he said, pointing across the room. “See that curtain? You open that curtain, and it’s a beautiful funnel right into the most beautiful ballroom that’s being built there.”
The president went on to claim that “they” wanted the ballroom built for 150 years, but that it was his administration who were “getting it done.” He has previously claimed that past presidents wanted to build a spacious ballroom but were not able to do so.
“We’re getting a lot of other things done too,” he added, before finally returning to the topic at hand and welcoming attendees to the reception, held to mark Black History Month.
The president demolished the East Wing of the White House in November in order to build his controversial ballroom, the cost of which has already ballooned to $400 million, double its original budget.
The demolition also included first lady Jacqueline Kennedy’s Rose Garden and the White House cinema. One of the few pieces salvaged from the demolition was a bust of Abraham Lincoln that is now on display in the West Wing Colonnade.
Other renovations Trump has made to the White House since the start of his second term include paving over the Rose Garden and replacing it with a cement patio reminiscent of Mar-a-Lago and redecorating the West Wing Colonnade by adding a "Presidential Walk of Fame," complete with portraits of previous presidents in gilded frames.
The controversial ballroom is now facing a legal challenge as a result of a suit brought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which sought an injunction to halt construction and argued that the president needed congressional approval to continue.
In late January, a federal judge balked at the Trump administration’s suggestion that the president had the authority to demolish the East Wing, likening it to President Gerald Ford installing a pool.
“Come on, be serious,” Bush-appointed U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said in response.
Trump predictably lashed out at the lawsuit online, bemoaning the fact that he was sued by “a group that couldn’t care less about our Country!”
“Making such a large gift to the U.S.A. was thought to be, by almost everyone, ‘A WONDERFUL THING TO DO’ — But no, as usual, I got sued, this time by the Radical Left National (No!)Trust for Historic Preservation, a group that couldn’t care less about our Country!” he wrote on Truth Social.
“The so-called ‘preservationists,’ who get their money from the most unusual of places, should not be allowed to stop this desperately needed addition to our GREAT White House, a place that a President has never needed permission to change or enhance, because of the special grounds on which it sits, no matter how big (and important!), that enhancement may be.”
