Karoline Leavitt might have watched “Mean Girls” one too many times, because she’s been sounding a lot like Regina George lately.The White House press secretary suggested on Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime” Tuesday that all the people whining about President Donald Trump demolishing a part of the White House to build a swanky $250 million ballroom are just “jealous” and “fake.”White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt committing the sin of wearing pink on a Monday, instead of a Wednesday, during a news conference on April 28, 2025.Bloomberg via Getty Images“Are the Democrats jealous that Trump is building this big, beautiful ballroom?” Watters asked Leavitt on his show Tuesday. Leavitt responded by saying that it “certainly appears that way.” “I believe there’s a lot of fake outrage right now because nearly every single president who has lived in this beautiful White House behind me has made modernizations and renovations of their own,” she said.Work begins on the demolition of a part of the East Wing of the White House, Monday, Oct. 20.via Associated Press“He has done it his entire life, his entire career. Construction is a process; at the end, the East Wing, which is an entirely separate structure from the executive mansion you see behind me, will be more modern and beautiful than ever,” Leavitt said. “And then on top of that, the White House is going to have a big, beautiful ballroom for generations of Americans to come — and the best part of it all, it’s not a dime of the taxpayers’ money.”Leavitt — who has a very sophisticated sense of humor — said presidents for decades have “quipped” about how they wish they had a bigger event space at the White House “that can hold hundreds more people than the current East Room and State Dining Rooms can.” “In fact, President Obama notably complained that during his tenure, he had to hold a state visit on the South Lawn and get a very expensive tent,” Leavitt said. “So while many presidents have privately dreamt about this, it’s President Trump who is actually doing something about it.” A large tent was erected for the State Dinner on the South Lawn of the White House Nov. 24, 2009, in Washington, D.C..Pool via Getty ImagesFormer President Barack Obama did host a state visit for the Indian prime minister in 2009 in a tent on the South Lawn.And honestly, it looked pretty gorgeous.The interior of the tent that hosted 400 guests for the first official State Dinner of President Obama's administration for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.Brooks Kraft via Getty Images“As we all know, in India some of life’s most treasured moments are often celebrated under the cover of a beautiful tent. It’s a little like tonight,” Obama said at the time during his toast remarks.It’s not clear what supposed complaint Leavitt was referring to. HuffPost has reached out to Obama for comment.Although Trump’s White House renovations have received a good amount of pushback from the public, the images of the East Wing being torn down for his ballroom are particularly unsettling — especially since Trump initially said it “won’t interfere with the current building.”“It is hard to watch that,” Joe Scarborough, the co-host of “Morning Joe,” said. “And it’s hard to believe that any president could destroy the White House and take a wrecking ball to an existing structure so historic.”“It’s not his house. It’s your house,” former first lady and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said in a post on X. “And he’s destroying it.”Close