Trump wants a 'beautiful ballroom' in the White House

WASHINGTON — If President Donald Trump had his way, guests at the White House would be waltzing in a grand ballroom, not jostling for space in its largest room.

Trump stepped up to the East Room podium Wednesday. He surveyed a large crowd of elected officials, guests and children who had assembled beneath the crystal chandeliers to watch him sign an executive order seeking to bar transgender women and girls from participating in women's sports.

“This room is packed,” he said.

He then remembered an old idea he’d had.

“You know, I’d offered to build a ballroom right here,” he said. “A beautiful, beautiful ballroom.”

Alas, he said, he never heard from the “administration.” His predecessor had passed on the idea.

At just under 3,000 square feet, the East Room is the biggest of the State Rooms and the only one that runs the entire width of the executive mansion. It was designed by James Hoban and George Washington to be a "Public Audience Room” according to the White House Historical Association. It’s where dances, receptions, concerts and press conferences are held.

“This was gonna be the reception room,” he said referring to his idea for a revamped East Room that would have served as the entrance to the ballroom he proposed.

For $100 million, he hoped to build one like the ballroom at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida mansion. That venue is 20,000 square feet.

Trump claimed he made the offer to the Biden Administration. The details about where the proposed ballroom would be situated within the White House were not immediately available.

“I offered to do it,” he said. “And I never heard back.”

USA TODAY reached out to former Biden officials for comment but did not hear back immediately.

Biden was not the first president Trump approached with his idea.

In 2016, the White House confirmed to USA TODAY that Trump had offered to spend $100 million on a new White House ballroom when Barack Obama was president, but that the offer was quickly rejected.

During his first run for office in 2016, Trump derided White House events for foreign dignitaries held in tents, saying that was an inappropriate way to entertain them. Last year, at least one state dinner was held in a tent, for Kenyan President William Ruto.

Tented state dinners have been held outdoors on the White House grounds for decades. In 1976, President Gerald Ford and First Lady Betty Ford hosted Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, according to the White House Historical Society. The visit was in honor of the American Bicentennial.

Now that he's back at the White House, Trump told the crowd Wednesday, “I'm going to try and make the offer to myself, you know... Because we could use a bigger room, right.”

It might take more than a wish to fulfill his vision.

Congress is tasked with appropriating funds for the refurnishing and maintenance of the White House and its grounds, according to the White House Historical Society. But it does not include provisions for anything other than repairs and furnishings.

Congress gives every new president an allowance of $100,000 to refurbish the private residence and the Oval Office. If Trump got support from Congress, he would also have to get approval from the National Park Service, said historian Douglas Brinkley.

“The National Mall and the White House grounds… it’s sacred ground,” said Brinkley. “To allow this to get permitted, it's tough.”

If Trump had the support of former presidents Biden, Clinton, Obama and Bush, Brinkley said, “It would help a lot."

But Brinkley said, "It's unclear whether they would back this ‘build baby, build’ action.”

Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House Correspondent for USA TODAY. You can follow her on X @SwapnaVenugopal