The president’s announcement of a massive White House ballroom comes 15 years after the Obama administration scorned his offer to build them a lavish new event space.
Way back in 2011, Donald Trump told ABC News in an interview with George Stephanopoulos that the previous year, he’d spoken with President Barack Obama’s office to propose replacing the “old broken canvas tent” they were then using to entertain dignitaries with a glitzy new hall.
In early 2015, former Obama adviser David Axelrod confirmed in his memoir, Believer, that Trump had indeed called him up to dunk on the existing space. “Let me build you a ballroom you can assemble and take apart,” the reality TV star told him, according to the book. “Trust me, it’ll look great.”
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Former White House press secretary Josh Earnest later also confirmed Trump’s offer, saying the administration had not taken it seriously because it would not have been “appropriate to have a shiny gold Trump sign on any part of the White House.”
While Trump’s proposals might have initially gotten the cold shoulder, colder still has been his revenge. On Thursday his press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, announced plans for a $200 million ballroom in the the East Wing of the White House.
At an anticipated 90,000 total square feet—almost double the existing square footage of the White House, with more than triple the capacity of the the East Room, currently largest room in the White House—the designs bear uncanny resemblance to Trump’s event hall at Mar-a-Lago, even as they also look to dwarf that hall by more than 70,000 square feet.
“They’ve wanted a ballroom at the White House for more than 150 years, but there’s never been a president that was good at ballrooms—really good, in fact,” Trump told reporters Thursday. “When they have big events, you entertain the president of China, the president of any place, and you have big crowds, they’ve always had a tent.”
It’s not the only change to White House architecture and design the president has made since assuming office for the second time in January. His administration has already liberally added gold accents to the Oval Office; paved over the lawn of the historic Rose Garden; ripped up the Palm Room; launched plans to replace the “terrible” bathroom in Abraham Lincoln’s former bedroom; and installed two 88-foot flagpoles flying enormous American flags outside the front of the building.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House and President Barack Obama’s representatives for comment on this story.
