President Donald Trump has already spent months trying to remake the White House in his own image. He’s gilded the Oval Office. He’s paved the Rose Garden. He’s added two gargantuan flag poles. He’s hung a bunch of new pictures of himself.
Now, he is about to embark on his biggest project yet: tearing down the East Wing to build an enormous ballroom that looks eerily similar to the one he uses at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida club.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt revealed new details Thursday about the $200 million project, which is expected to break ground in September and wrap up in time for Trump to use it before the end of his term. Funding purportedly will be provided by Trump and other unnamed individuals.
“I’ll do it and probably have some donors or whatever,” the president said at a signing ceremony Thursday.
“There’s never been a president that was good at ballrooms — really good,” he said.
