Trump defends $200M privately funded White Home ballroom with historic examples

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President Donald Trump 's privately funded $200 million White Home ballroom is the most recent "daring, crucial addition" to the chief residence, officers mentioned, describing the East Wing development as a continuation of presidential upgrades courting again greater than a century.

Images of the East Wing façade being demolished went viral Monday, prompting criticism on-line and a swift rebuttal from the White Home, which wrote that "unhinged leftists and their Pretend Information allies are clutching their pearls over President Donald J. Trump’s visionary addition of a grand, privately funded ballroom … a daring, crucial addition that echoes the storied historical past of enhancements and additions from commanders-in-chief to maintain the chief residence a beacon of American excellence."

White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt echoed the president's message Tuesday on "Jesse Watters Primetime," saying, "I imagine there’s loads of faux outrage proper now.

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"Practically each single president who’s lived on this lovely White Home behind me has made modernizations and renovations of their very own," Leavitt added. "In truth, presidents for many years — in trendy occasions — have joked about how they wished they'd a bigger occasion house right here on the White Home, one thing that would maintain lots of extra folks than the present East Room and State Eating Room.

"President Obama even complained that, throughout his tenure, he needed to maintain a state dinner on the South Garden and hire a really costly tent."

Work continues on the demolition of part of the East Wing of the White Home Tuesday earlier than development of a brand new ballroom. (AP Picture/Jacquelyn Martin)

In an article shared Tuesday , the administration listed greater than a dozen examples of leaders "renovating, increasing and modernizing" the property to "meet the wants of the current day," from Theodore Roosevelt’s West Wing in 1902 to Barack Obama’s Kitchen Backyard in 2009.

Trump first confirmed the ballroom mission Monday on Reality Social, writing, "I'm happy to announce that floor has been damaged … to construct the brand new, huge, lovely White House Ballroom. Fully separate from the White Home itself, the East Wing is being totally modernized … and can be extra lovely than ever when it's full!"

"For greater than 150 years, each President has dreamt about having a Ballroom … I'm honored to be the primary President to lastly get this much-needed mission underway — with zero value to the American Taxpayer!" he continued, crediting "many beneficiant Patriots, Nice American Corporations, and yours really" for funding the construct. "This Ballroom can be fortunately used for Generations to return!"

The White Home's Speedy Response 47 account additionally shared an in depth thread on X Tuesday exhibiting how previous presidents "have been renovating, increasing, and modernizing the White Home to satisfy the wants of the present day."

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This photograph offered by the U.S. Library of Congress exhibits a crowd outdoors the White Home on the marriage day of Jessie Woodrow Wilson, daughter of President Wilson, who married Francis Bowes Sayre in a White Home ceremony in Washington Nov. 25, 1913. (U.S. Library of Congress by way of AP)

Trump elaborated Tuesday, calling the federal authorities "this huge for nothing."

"We’re constructing a world-class ballroom," he mentioned. "You most likely hear the attractive sound of development to the again right here. That’s music to my ears. Folks don’t prefer it. I find it irresistible. Once I hear that sound, it jogs my memory of cash. On this case, a scarcity of cash, as a result of I’m paying for it."

Trump additionally famous that the East Room, at the moment the most important indoor occasion house, is little greater than "a cocktail space" that holds about 88 folks.

Throughout a Diwali occasion on the White Home Tuesday night time, Trump once more referenced the mission and his choice to not settle for a wage, quipping that "they most likely owe me some huge cash" for the whole lot he’s put into the constructing.

President Donald Trump speaks throughout a lunch with Republican senators within the Rose Backyard of the White Home Tuesday. (AP Picture/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

"If I get cash from our nation, I’ll do one thing good with it. Like give it to charity or give it to the White Home," he mentioned. "We restore the White Home, and we’re doing a terrific job. The ballroom is underneath development. They’ve been attempting to get it for 150 years."