White House East Wing demolition: Who is funding President Trump’s $250M ballroom?

Work started Monday to tear down portions of the East Wing of the White House, as President Trump moves ahead with plans to build a $250 million ballroom.

In typically controversial fashion, the renovation will proceed even though the National Capital Planning Commission, the federal agency that normally oversees such projects, has not yet given its approval. Trump’s appointed NCPC chair, Will Scharf, told reporters earlier this month that the “commission does not have jurisdiction… What we deal with is essentially construction, vertical build.”

How much will American taxpayers pay for the White House ballroom?

According to President Trump, the renovation will be completed “at zero cost to the American taxpayer, going on to explain that the project “is being privately funded by many generous Patriots, Great American Companies, and, yours truly.”

Last week, Trump hosted a dinner at the White House for approximately 130 donors as a reward for contributing to the construction of the ballroom.

Who attended Trump’s dinner for donors?

A White House official, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal, said representatives from Amazon, Apple, Booz Allen Hamilton, Coinbase, Comcast, Google, Lockheed Martin, Meta Platforms, and T-Mobile attended the dinner.

Also on the guest list were oil billionaire Harold Hamm, Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman, Small Business Administration chief Kelly Loeffler and her husband, Jeff Sprecher, and cryptocurrency entrepreneurs Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss.

The White House has not officially disclosed which companies or individuals are financially supporting the project.

Details of Trump’s White House ballrom

Trump says he is fulfilling a 150-year-old desire “for a large event space on the White House complex that can hold substantially more guests than currently allowed.” The largest existing room in the East Wing can accommodate around 200 people.

The White House announced the project in July, stating that the new ballroom would host up to 650 people. More recently, Trump said the ballroom would hold nearly 1,000 guests.

Images of the planned interior show a vast space bedecked in gold from floor to ceiling with a checkered marble floor. The ballroom will be flanked on three sides by massive arched windows and Corinthian columns.

East Wing renovation contradicts earlier statements

The demolition has drawn sharp criticism, in part because it contradicts statements from Trump and the White House this summer.

Demolition work on the East Wing façade and other parts of the building directly go against what White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters in July. “Nothing will be torn down,” she said.

Renderings of the ballroom show that it will be an integral part of the main building, contrary to Trump’s earlier claim. “It’ll be near it but not touching it and pays total respect to the existing building, which I’m the biggest fan of,” he said in July.

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