He lied.
Did you expect anything else from Trump?
He did this without approval! What he is doing is against the law! But who is going to tell the king that?
He lied to government officials, he lied to Congress, and he lied to the voters! This is costing over $100,000,000 more! He lowballed the design to sell it to the people as a little "Ballroom" for 650 people. The White House press release in July said,
The White House is one of the most beautiful and historic buildings in the world, yet the White House is currently unable to host major functions honoring world leaders and other countries without having to install a large and unsightly tent approximately 100 yards away from the main building entrance. The White House State Ballroom will be a much-needed and exquisite addition of approximately 90,000 total square feet of ornately designed and carefully crafted space, with a seated capacity of 650 people — a significant increase from the 200-person seated capacity in the East Room of the White House.
What we got is a ballroom for 1,000 people! It’s a two-story addition that dominates the historic White House.
The White House Ballroom will be substantially separated from the main building of the White House, but at the same time, it’s theme and architectural heritage will be almost identical. The site of the new ballroom will be where the small, heavily changed, and reconstructed East Wing currently sits. The East Wing was constructed in 1902 and has been renovated and changed many times, with a second story added in 1942.
Bull! It looks nothing like the historic White House... it looks like a miniature Mar-A-Lago, all covered in gold leaf. He knew that this was a lie; you cannot go from design changes that drastic and have building plans that quickly. It had to be in the works for more than a year. My guess is Trump thought of this in his last term and carried it to fruition since he came to office in January.
Tell me that he hasn't been planning this all along when he fired the head of the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) and put his crony in charge. As AP News reported, Scharf ruled that:
[...]“What we deal with is essentially construction, vertical build,” Scharf said. He called Trump’s promised ballroom “one of the most exciting construction projects in the modern history of” Washington.He made the comments during the only public meeting of the commission scheduled before crews are expected to break ground on a $200 million, 90,000-square-foot ballroom likely to greatly alter the look and size of both the White House’s East and West Wings.
But they never saw the real plans! The new addition has low terracotta tile roofs with Spanish-Mediterranean influence—or at least the design that was released to the public—but The Washington Post article went on to report:
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit created by Congress to help preserve historic buildings, sent a letter Tuesday to administration officials, warning that the planned 90,000-square-foot ballroom “will overwhelm the White House itself,” which is about 55,000 square feet.“We respectfully urge the Administration and the National Park Service to pause demolition until plans for the proposed ballroom go through the legally required public review processes,” Carol Quillen, National Trust’s CEO, said in a statement, citing two federal commissions that have traditionally reviewed White House additions.White House officials dismissed the criticism as “manufactured outrage,” arguing that past presidents had pursued their own changes to the executive campus as necessary. They said that the privately funded ballroom will be a “bold, necessary addition” to the presidential grounds.
But Trump as usual said... F**k them!
Trump has long touted his plans for an expansive ballroom, insisting that presidents needed the space to host large events. He also said in July that the construction of the planned addition would not affect the existing White House.
He flat-out lied!
The New Republic writes...
If a picture tells a thousand words, there’s no better testament to the rot and ruin of this administration than the demolished East Wing of the White House.Matt FordOctober 22, 2025It is hard to imagine a more fitting image of President Donald Trump’s second term than the photographs of the White House’s East Wing that became public this week. The first series of photos on Monday showed large holes torn in the wing’s exterior. By Tuesday, nearly the entire portion of the building had been destroyed.The demolition is part of Trump’s planned construction of the White House State Ballroom, a gaudy 90,000-square-foot complex that will replace the East Wing. That space once held offices for the first lady’s staff, various other White House support personnel, and a guest entrance. Now it will feature a ballroom that fits 650 seated guests for Trump to fete and be feted by.[...]Trump’s building project is more or less illegal. The White House is both public property and a national historical site. Its welfare is overseen by the National Park Service, and any structural changes must be approved by the National Capital Planning Commission, or NCPC, which oversees federal public buildings in the nation’s capital more generally. Federal law requires the commission to approve plans for all federal buildings in the district, including the White House, in what can be a yearslong process of consultation and review.The Trump administration has taken its usual approach to these hurdles. It did not bother submitting plans to the commission; it simply started gouging holes in the side of the building with an excavator. Will Scharf, the Trump-appointed head of the NCPC, claimed during a public meeting in September that no approval was necessary because the commission’s jurisdiction only covered construction, not demolition. He also happens to be the White House staff secretary and was a former personal lawyer for the president during his post-2020 legal troubles.
None of the AIs (Gemini, Perplexity, and ChatGPT) could find any records of building permits being pulled for the demolition and construction!
As an engineer, I know changes this massive had to be "in the works" for at least a year! That means Trump out and out lied to the public and to Congress!
In a discussion with Gemini, I asked if Trump wants a palace. Here is its reply...
If you distill everything we've discussed, the facts strongly suggest that the typical constraints that govern federal construction—time for design, transparent public review, and agency approval—were overcome by a driving force that essentially reduces to:
- A Long-Standing Personal Desire: Trump has wanted a large, grand ballroom at the White House for over a decade.
- Unconstrained Planning: The full, 90,000-square-foot demolition and rebuild plan was likely in development for a year or more.
- Removal of Obstacles: The appointment of a White House insider (Will Scharf) to lead the NCPC, coupled with his immediate ruling that demolition doesn't require pre-approval, cleared the runway for construction to start immediately.
The result is a highly unusual construction project that prioritizes a singular vision and rapid execution over the long, deliberate process typically required for a national landmark. Your succinct assessment—"Trump wants a place"—serves as the most straightforward explanation for why the engineering and political realities were bent to achieve a goal that would otherwise take many years.
And where did the funding come from? Trump got his billionaire friends to fork over the money. Companies like Amazon, Apple, Meta, Google, Lockheed Martin, and Coinbase all chipped in. Oil magnate Harold Hamm, Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman, crypto entrepreneurs Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, and political figures like Small Business Administration chief Kelly Loeffler and her husband Jeff Sprecher also contributed. You have to wonder—what’s the quid pro quo? What do they expect to get out of their multimillion-dollar investment?
Welcome to the new Versailles. The new home of King Trump!
Update: 10:24 @ 10AM
No one really knows what is being built because the plans are a "State Secret" only know to Trump & Company... the the owners of the property what Trump is doing. But here are two ideas of what it might look like and it is scary. This is what CBS News thinks it will look like!
This is USA Today's best guess...
On the January 20, 2028 on the day Trump leaves office it should be torn down!
It's about time for the 25th Amendment to come into play. He is deranged. My guess he is suing the Justice Department for $230M because his "donors" are not coming through. I also bet his "legal fees" were paid by donors and not himself.
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