₦airaland Forum

President Donald Trump has been envisioning a new ballroom on the White House campus for a decade and a half.

His dream is about to become a reality.

Construction will begin in September on a $200 million, 90,000-square-foot ballroom, his press secretary announced Thursday, fulfilling a 15-year ambition by the president to construct an event space on the White House grounds that expands the building’s entertaining capacity — but also resembles the gilded spaces of his private clubs.


Renderings provided by the White House depict a vast space with gold and crystal chandeliers, gilded Corinthian columns, a coffered ceiling with gold inlays, gold floor lamps and a checkered marble floor. Three walls of arched windows look out over the White House’s south grounds — including a massive new flagpole that was another of Trump’s additions to the historic compound.


“I always said I was going to do something about the ballroom, because they should have one,” Trump told reporters on Thursday. “It’ll be a great legacy project, and I think it’ll be special.”

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the new “state ballroom” would occupy space currently housing the East Wing of the executive mansion, where first ladies have traditionally maintained offices. Staff working from the location now will be “temporarily relocated.”

The renderings show the exterior of the ballroom jutting onto the South Lawn, with a colonnade running along one wall. A Palladian facade with columns and a pediment sits on the eastern wall.

The gold-and-white style closely mimics the Louis XIV-style main event room at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s estate in Palm Beach. Trump has not shied away from drawing inspiration from his clubs.


“No president knew how to build a ballroom,” Trump said last weekend, meeting the European Commission president in another of his crystal-draped ballrooms, this one at his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland. “I could take this one, drop it right down there, and it would be beautiful.”

The new ballroom — which will maintain the “theme and architectural heritage” of the neoclassical executive mansion, the White House said — will have a seated capacity of 650 people, more than three times the space in the East Room, currently the largest event space in the White House.

“President Trump is a builder at heart and has an extraordinary eye for detail,” White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said in a statement. “The President and the Trump White House are fully committed to working with the appropriate organizations to preserving the special history of the White House while building a beautiful ballroom that can be enjoyed by future Administrations and generations of Americans to come.”

Leavitt characterized the new construction — which she said will be funded by Trump and other private donors — as a necessary addition after previous White Houses were forced to host major events in a temporary tent constructed on the South Lawn, which she called “unsightly.”

“For 150 years, presidents, administrations and White House staff have longed for a large event space on the White House complex that can hold substantially more guests than currently allowed,” she said. “President Trump has expressed his commitment to solving this problem on behalf of future administrations and the American people.”

Trump, she said, had convened meetings recently with officials from the National Park Service, the White House Military Office and the US Secret Service to “discuss design features and planning.”

An architect known for “classical architectural design,” McCrery Architects, was selected to spearhead the project.

“I am honored that President Trump has entrusted me to help bring this beautiful and necessary renovation to The People’s House, while preserving the elegance of its classical design and historical importance,” the firm’s CEO Jim McCrery said in a statement.

The vision of a new White House ballroom floated in Trump’s mind dating back at least to 2010, when he called Barack Obama’s White House offering to build one.

His offer was rebuffed.

“It was going to cost about $100 million,” Trump said during his first term. “I offered to do it, and I never heard back.”

inoki247:
Lol and they want the Citizens to pay back the Nation's Debt...

I guess the Embassy also have something to say

chisomkachy:
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu’s first supplementary budget includes a fleet of SUVs for himself and his wife, a presidential yacht and the renovation of his villa amid a cost-of-living crisis for some of the poorest people in the world.

The proposal — which seeks additional funding beyond the annual budget approved by Tinubu’s predecessor — comes as the government asks Nigerians to persevere through pain caused in part by a raft of economic reforms ushered in by the new president. Africa’s most populous country faces rampant unemployment, soaring food prices and a plummeting currency.

Federal lawmakers approved the president’s request for extra spending on Thursday, but eliminated the provision of 5 billion naira ($6.01 million) to buy a presidential yacht. Instead, they doubled the allocation to a student loan fund to 10 billion naira, according Abubakar Bichi, chairman of an appropriations committee in the House of Representatives.

The lawmakers approved 1.5 billion-naira proposed to purchase SUVs for the office of First Lady Oluremi Tinubu — an amount larger than that allocated to many individual federal colleges. The supplementary budget also proposes almost 6 billion naira to purchase SUVs for the presidency — more than the amount initially allocated to fund a student loan program for poor families.


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-02/nigeria-budgets-for-suvs-and-yachts-amid-economic-hardship

FreeStuffsNG:
The new ballroom — which will maintain the “theme and architectural heritage” of the neoclassical executive mansion, the White House said — will have a seated capacity of 650 people, more than three times the space in the East Room, currently the largest event space in the White House.

This is the same USA that has counties living along flood planes that could not afford money to build a warning alert system which unfortunately led to the deaths of many children and people running into hundreds of deaths just few weeks ago in this year 2025.

During the rescue relayed live on TV by CNN, the Texas emergency workers were using bare hands to turn over shrubs to look for survivors. No drone, no technological or advanced rescue operation like China or Japan deploys. Btw, Texas is one of the richest oil-producing states in the US yet most of its counties are poor and rural. Most of the victims of the flood never made it because US was using manual labor to search. The whole world was embarrassed by the disgusting and disgraceful poverty on display in Texas.

A golf and jet-loving President who cut down on medicaid for the US poor and less fortunate is same President willing to spend almost half a billion dollars to build a ballroom for government use only. That's the same President whose representative in Nigeria few days ago complained that our government is spending money on government houses. Smh.

This is the face of a hypocrite below

Leavitt characterized the new construction — which she said will be funded by Trump and other private donors — as a necessary addition after previous White Houses were forced to host major events in a temporary tent constructed on the South Lawn, which she called “unsightly.”

FreeStuffsNG:
The new ballroom — which will maintain the “theme and architectural heritage” of the neoclassical executive mansion, the White House said — will have a seated capacity of 650 people, more than three times the space in the East Room, currently the largest event space in the White House.

This is the same USA that has counties living along flood planes that could not afford money to build a warning alert system which unfortunately led to the deaths of many children and people running into hundreds of deaths just few weeks ago in this year 2025.

During the rescue relayed live on TV by CNN, the Texas emergency workers were using bare hands to turn over shrubs to look for survivors. No drone, no technological or advanced rescue operation like China or Japan deploys. Btw, Texas is one of the richest oil-producing states in the US yet most of its counties are poor and rural. Most of the victims of the flood never made it because US was using manual labor to search. The whole world was embarrassed by the disgusting and disgraceful poverty on display in Texas.

A golf and jet-loving President who cut down on medicaid for the US poor and less fortunate is same President willing to spend almost half a billion dollars to build a ballroom for government use only. That's the same President whose representative in Nigeria few days ago complained that our government is spending money on government houses. Smh.

This is the face of a hypocrite below

FreeStuffsNG:
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/31/politics/white-house-ballroom-construction

greatiyk4u:
See some funny comparison
You build government houses and run overseas for medical tourism yet over 80% of your population are in multidimensional poverty

This is the difference

jaxxy:
Nigerian government has no priority or accountability. This is Factual.

ejieddy:
Don't be hateful and blind when reading...

"Leavitt characterized the new construction — which she said will be funded by Trump and other private donors — as a necessary addition after previous White Houses were forced to host major events in a temporary tent constructed on the South Lawn, which she called “unsightly.”

It will be funded by him and other private donors. Are you ok now? He's a billionaire and he will fund it. It's not your money oga. It's his money. Rest!

DenreleDave:
Trump just dey print dollars dey spend anyhow sha

FreeStuffsNG:
The new ballroom — which will maintain the “theme and architectural heritage” of the neoclassical executive mansion, the White House said — will have a seated capacity of 650 people, more than three times the space in the East Room, currently the largest event space in the White House.

This is the same USA that has counties living along flood planes that could not afford money to build a warning alert system which unfortunately led to the deaths of many children and people running into hundreds of deaths just few weeks ago in this year 2025.

During the rescue relayed live on TV by CNN, the Texas emergency workers were using bare hands to turn over shrubs to look for survivors. No drone, no technological or advanced rescue operation like China or Japan deploys. Btw, Texas is one of the richest oil-producing states in the US yet most of its counties are poor and rural. Most of the victims of the flood never made it because US was using manual labor to search. The whole world was embarrassed by the disgusting and disgraceful poverty on display in Texas.

A golf and jet-loving President who cut down on medicaid for the US poor and less fortunate is same President willing to spend almost half a billion dollars to build a ballroom for government use only. That's the same President whose representative in Nigeria few days ago complained that our government is spending money on government houses. Smh.

This is the face of a hypocrite below

“For 150 years, presidents, administrations and White House staff have longed for a large event space on the White House complex that can hold substantially more guests than currently allowed,” she said. “President Trump has expressed his commitment to solving this problem on behalf of future administrations and the American people.”

FreeStuffsNG:
You're ignorant of the cosmetics of US and it's largely due to inferiority complex. I am sure that you don’t know that American leaders go on medical tourism too and most of the medications in US are imported from Ireland, India and China. Most of the medical hardware devices are from China and Germany.

A country that imports almost everything from overseas will definitely have leaders that will rather go to the foreign countries but will not make a fuss. Ignorance is not bliss o.

If you have money, you can pay for your service anywhere in the world. This is what the poor and those with poor man mentality don't know

Iran is the sweet spot for Westerners who want affordable and topnotch plastic surgery but you will never read about it. So by your inferior logic, Iran is automatically better than the Western countries niyen. Smh.

Again, I am sure that you don’t see anything wrong with a US with poor counties that could not fund flood alert system or buy rescue gadgets now spending millions on a ballroom for dancing on the graves of their flood victims. That's you expressing inferiority complex. Smh


Inferiority complex again.

That you have a black skin should not make you believe that you are inferior to Americans.

It is disgraceful, irresponsible and wicked that you call building a ballroom with millions of US dollars while cutting medicaid for the poor and leaving them to be killed by flood is accountability. Smh

Do not let inferiority complex destroy you.

FreeStuffsNG:
The new ballroom — which will maintain the “theme and architectural heritage” of the neoclassical executive mansion, the White House said — will have a seated capacity of 650 people, more than three times the space in the East Room, currently the largest event space in the White House.

This is the same USA that has counties living along flood planes that could not afford money to build a warning alert system which unfortunately led to the deaths of many children and people running into hundreds of deaths just few weeks ago in this year 2025.

During the rescue relayed live on TV by CNN, the Texas emergency workers were using bare hands to turn over shrubs to look for survivors. No drone, no technological or advanced rescue operation like China or Japan deploys. Btw, Texas is one of the richest oil-producing states in the US yet most of its counties are poor and rural. Most of the victims of the flood never made it because US was using manual labor to search. The whole world was embarrassed by the disgusting and disgraceful poverty on display in Texas.

A golf and jet-loving President who cut down on medicaid for the US poor and less fortunate is same President willing to spend almost half a billion dollars to build a ballroom for government use only. That's the same President whose representative in Nigeria few days ago complained that our government is spending money on government houses. Smh.

This is the face of a hypocrite below

This is the same USA that has counties living along flood planes that could not afford money to build a warning alert system which unfortunately led to the deaths of many children and people running into hundreds of deaths just few weeks ago in this year 2025.


This is the face of a hypocrite above

FreeStuffsNG:
The new ballroom — which will maintain the “theme and architectural heritage” of the neoclassical executive mansion, the White House said — will have a seated capacity of 650 people, more than three times the space in the East Room, currently the largest event space in the White House.

This is the same USA that has counties living along flood planes that could not afford money to build a warning alert system which unfortunately led to the deaths of many children and people running into hundreds of deaths just few weeks ago in this year 2025.

During the rescue relayed live on TV by CNN, the Texas emergency workers were using bare hands to turn over shrubs to look for survivors. No drone, no technological or advanced rescue operation like China or Japan deploys. Btw, Texas is one of the richest oil-producing states in the US yet most of its counties are poor and rural. Most of the victims of the flood never made it because US was using manual labor to search. The whole world was embarrassed by the disgusting and disgraceful poverty on display in Texas.

A golf and jet-loving President who cut down on medicaid for the US poor and less fortunate is same President willing to spend almost half a billion dollars to build a ballroom for government use only. That's the same President whose representative in Nigeria few days ago complained that our government is spending money on government houses. Smh.

This is the face of a hypocrite below

OLOKOESHIN:
Imagine it's Tinubu that wants this kind of ball edifice in the aso rock...hahahahaha.....dem Rufai ocheni and co shall be crying by now

OLOKOESHIN:
Imagine it's Tinubu that wants this kind of ball edifice in the aso rock...hahahahaha.....dem Rufai ocheni and co shall be crying by now

Elusive001:
But you supported the presidential yatch bought by your god. Why criticize Trump? You have absolutely no moral standing to criticize Trump.


Hypocrisy stinks