Trump Breaks Ground on White House Ballroom to Accommodate 999 Guests

Partial Demolition of East Room Facilities Previously Used by the First Lady
Ballroom Construction Costs Reach $200 Million
"Absolutely No Burden on Taxpayers," Trump Stresses

Donald Trump, the President of the United States, announced the commencement of construction for a large ballroom within the White House. This comes approximately three months after Caroline Levitt, the White House spokesperson, hinted at the construction of a large ballroom around July. On October 20 (local time), President Trump wrote on his social networking service, Truth Social, "I am pleased to announce the groundbreaking of a new, large, and beautiful White House ballroom on the White House grounds." He added, "The East Wing, which is completely separate from the main White House building, is being fully modernized as part of this (ballroom construction) process, and upon completion, it will be more beautiful than ever."

Donald Trump, the President of the United States, announced the commencement of construction for a large ballroom within the White House. This comes about three months after Caroline Levitt, the White House spokesperson, hinted at the construction of a large ballroom in July. Photo by Reuters Yonhap News

He continued, "For more than 150 years, every president has dreamed of having a ballroom in the White House to host grand parties and state visits," emphasizing, "It is an honor to be the first president to finally move forward with this much-needed project." Above all, President Trump stressed that not a single dollar of American taxpayer money would be used for the construction of the ballroom, stating, "The White House ballroom is being funded by many generous patriots, great American companies, and myself personally," and added, "This ballroom will be joyfully used for generations to come."

Earlier that day, President Trump also announced the groundbreaking during a celebration event in the White House East Room, which was attended by the Louisiana State University (LSU) Tigers, the NCAA baseball champions, and the LSU Shreveport Pilots, the NAIA baseball champions. He said, "We just started today." He added, "This (East Room) was originally a ballroom and could accommodate 88 people, but the new one will hold 999 people. I chose 999 because I thought people might worry if we went over 1,000."

Previously, in July, White House spokesperson Caroline Levitt had announced that construction of a large ballroom with a capacity of 650 people would begin in September. However, it appears that the capacity has been increased from the original plan and the groundbreaking has been delayed by about a month. At the time, Levitt stated that the ballroom would be completed before the end of President Trump's term, and that the $200 million (approximately 284.4 billion won) in construction costs would be covered by President Trump and other donors.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.