Administration

Trump on $400M ballroom price tag: ‘It will be magnificent, safe and secure!’

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by Sophie Brams - 05/06/26 9:06 AM ET

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by Sophie Brams - 05/06/26 9:06 AM ET

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President Trump on Wednesday defended the hefty price tag for his new ballroom on the East Wing of the White House, saying the space will be double the size and “far higher quality” than initially planned.

Trump has long held that the White House needs the 90,000-square-foot ballroom so that future administrations can hold large state gatherings indoors, rather than continuing to use outdoor tents as is done now.

The cost of the project has been somewhat of a moving target since it was first announced last year, with Trump initially putting the estimate around $200 million. The figure has ballooned to an estimated $400 million since then.

“The only reason the cost has changed is because, after deep rooted studies, it is approximately twice the size, and a far higher quality, than the original proposal, which would not have been adequate to handle the necessary events, meetings, and even future Inaugurations,” the president wrote in a Wednesday morning post on Truth Social.

“It will be magnificent, safe, and secure!” he added. “This was a necessary change, it was done long ago, but the Fake News failed to report it, trying to make it look like there was a cost overrun. Actually, it is coming in ahead of schedule, and under budget!”

The construction was slated to be funded mostly by private donors, according to Trump. But after a lone gunman attempted to target Trump administration officials, including the president, during last month’s White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner, some Republicans are pushing for taxpayers to foot the bill.

“It’s very difficult to have a bunch of important people in the same place unless it’s really, really secure. The times in which we live are unusual. I’ve been up here for a while now, I’ve never felt the sense of threat that exists today,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said two days after the dinner incident.

The Senate Judiciary Committee added $1 billion to a budget reconciliation bill on Monday for the U.S. Secret Service to allow for security upgrades on the White House complex tied to the ballroom construction, including “above-ground and below-ground security features.”

Crews are reportedly rebuilding the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) beneath the proposed addition, details of which are usually kept secret but have been brought into public view amid an ongoing legal fight over the ballroom’s construction.

“The military is building a big complex under the ballroom, which has come out recently because of a stupid lawsuit that was filed,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on a Sunday in late March, later describing the bunker as having bulletproof glass and “drone-proof” roofs and ceilings.

Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) told reporters last month that private donations should be used “for buying [fine] china and stuff like that,” while customs and national park fees could help offset the overarching cost of the project.

Republicans’ insistence that the ballroom carries a critical national security component has done little to change Americans’ minds about the project, however.

A poll released last week by the Washington Post, ABC News and Ipsos found that 56 percent of U.S. adults opposed the plan compared to 30 percent who said they supported construction.

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