It’s the golden makeover the White House didn’t know it needed.
Construction crews will soon break ground on the massive, gilded ballroom that President Donald Trump hopes to use for state dinners and other events before the end of his term in 2029, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt revealed Thursday.
Leavitt told reporters that construction of the 90,000-square-foot ballroom — containing what she described as “a much-needed and exquisite addition” of “innately designed and carefully crafted space” — would begin in September.
“The White House is one of the most beautiful and historic buildings in the world, yet the White House is currently unable to host major functions honoring world leaders and other countries without having to install a large and unsightly tent approximately 100 yards away from the main building entrance,” she said.
Leavitt added that the new “White House State Ballroom” would be a “much-needed and exquisite addition of approximately 90,000 total square feet of innately designed and carefully crafted space, with a seated capacity of 650 people — a significant increase from the 200-person seated capacity in the East Room of the White House.”
The new event facility will be built on the site of the White House’s East Wing, which currently stands between the Executive Residence and Treasury Department headquarters.
First built in 1902 and enlarged with a second floor four decades later, it houses offices for First Lady Melania Trump and her staff, the White House Military Office, the White House Visitor Office, and other White House support functions. Leavitt said those offices would be temporarily relocated during the construction.
According to Leavitt, the East Wing will be “heavily changed and reconstructed” once the new ballroom is completed.
She also told reporters that the addition to the White House complex will cost approximately $200 million, with the funds to come from President Trump and unspecified private donors.
And while it will be “substantially separated from the main building of the White House,” Leavitt stressed that it will be nearly identical in “theme and architectural heritage” to the existing facilities.
An interior rendering of the ballroom provided by the White House reveals a massive hall with ornate ceilings and chandeliers, replete with gold leaf throughout.
The image is reminiscent of the ballroom which Trump had built on the grounds of Mar-a-Lago, the historic 1920s-era Palm Beach mansion that is both a private club run by his family’s eponymous hotel and real estate company and his primary residence.
Since returning to the White House for his second term in January, Trump has sought to update the appearance of the historic facility to make it more to his liking.
He enlisted a cabinetmaker he has previously employed at Mar-a-Lago, who he referred to as his “gold guy,” to give multiple surfaces in the Oval Office his own Midas touch, leaving the iconic room adorned with ostentatious splashes of pure gold leaf paint in places where there was no such ornamentation before.
He has also ordered the iconic Kennedy Rose Garden to be converted into a patio much like the one on which he entertains guests at his Florida social club.
The rose bushes that have ringed the area since the Kennedy administration remain, but the grass surface that has been the site of numerous events just outside of the Oval Office has been replaced with paving stones.
