On a warm, sunny Tuesday in May, President Donald Trump invited White House reporters to tour the work site of the crown jewel in his one-man effort to transform the nation’s capital to fit his vision of architectural beauty. Known in planning documents as the White House State Ballroom. But in donor pledge agreements, as “The Donald J. Trump Ballroom at the White House.”Speaking over a cacophony of construction workers and their heavy machinery, Trump extolled the virtues of the proposed 90,000-square-foot ballroom. Which, he said, with its neoclassical Greco-Roman design, will be “one of the most beautiful buildings that’s ever been built in the country.”Trump insists that not a dime of taxpayer money has been spent on the ballroom, that he and donors have covered the $400 million price tag: “It’s a gift from me, and from great patriots. … It’s going to cost the country nothing.”
Though known for what back in his New York developer days called “truthful hyperbole,” Trump is not exaggerating when he boasts that “there will never be anything like this built again.”
President Donald Trump tours the ballroom construction site at the White House in Washington on May 19. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
