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By Giulia Carbonaro
Senior Reporter
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President Donald Trump has revealed that the U.S. military is building a “massive” complex under the planned White House ballroom, which required the demolition of the East Wing last year.
“The military is building a massive complex under the ballroom, and that’s under construction, and we're doing very well, so we're ahead of schedule,” the president told reporters on Air Force One as he returned to Washington D.C, on Sunday evening after spending a weekend at his Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago.
The military complex is “part of” the ballroom, adding: “the ballroom essentially becomes a shed for what's being built under.”
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Without elaborating on the details of the complex, Trump said information about the plan had seeped out recently because of what he described as "a stupid lawsuit" around the construction of the contested ballroom.
Why It Matters
Trump’s plan to build a 90,000-square-foot ballroom in the White House—what his administration called “a much-needed and exquisite addition” to the historic building—has drawn criticism and faced legal challenges in court.
Critics were outraged when the East Wing was destroyed last year as construction for the ballroom began, saying the president did not have the right to make such drastic changes to the “People’s House.” Democrats accused Trump of circumventing traditional processes of seeking permission from the National Capital Planning Commission, Commission of Fine Arts and congressional approval.
A lawsuit from the National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) seeking to halt construction until the president has won congressional approval and passed independent reviews is still being considered by a federal judge.
What To Know
Trump appeared defiant of the lawsuit trying to halt construction of the White House ballroom on Sunday, saying works to build it are “ahead of schedule and under budget.”
According to the administration, construction for the ballroom should be completed by 2028 at an estimated cost of $400 million. This is the final amount the president has landed on after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt initially said the ballroom’s price tag would be $200 million. The project was mostly funded by private donors, according to the president.
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Sunday was the first time Trump referred to a military complex being built under the planned ballroom. Talking to reporters, he described the ballroom as a “shed” for this complex. The ballroom will have “high-grade, bullet-proof” glass windows and a drone-proof roof, he said.
“Unfortunately we’re living in an age where that is a good thing,” Trump added.
What People Are Saying
Trump said about the ballroom in a post on Truth Social on February 10: “When completed, it will be the finest ballroom ever built anywhere in the world, one that has been sought by presidents for over 150 years—and now they are getting THE BEST! Because of its unprecedented structural, safety, and security features, it will also be used for future Presidential Inaugurations.”
David Scott Parker, architect and National Trust for Historic Preservation board member, said: “The ballroom is literally an imposition between two branches of our government.”
Carol Quillen, National Trust for Historic Preservation president and CEO, said: “Even if we are slow and we make mistakes and we fight, that process has meaning to us. No project belonging to the public should be the vision of just one man.”
Davis Ingle, White House spokesman, said: “President Trump is the best builder and developer in the entire world, and the American people can rest well knowing that this project is in his hands.”
What Happens Next
The president did not provide a new deadline for completion of the ballroom, which the White House said will be finished “long before the end” of Trump’s term. But there is still a chance that the ballroom will not be completed at all if the federal judge hearing the lawsuit against the administration rules to halt construction.
During a hearing of the lawsuit earlier this month, Judge Richard Leon described the demolition of the East Wing as “brazen” and suggested he might block the project later this month. “I’m struggling to see this as an ‘alteration,'” he said.
White House lawyers have said that the president did not need outside permission to go ahead with the project.
The National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC), a government commission that oversees planning for federal buildings and land in Washington D.C., is scheduled on Thursday to take a final vote approving the ballroom. NCPC Chairman Will Scharf said at the beginning of a public forum earlier this month hosted the group: “We’re going to take the time to deliberate, and we're going to have a final vote on April 2.”
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