New renderings show more details of White House ballroom under construction

[riversedge]

Source: CBS news


Updated on: September 25, 2025 / 9:27 AM EDT


Washington — New architectural renderings obtained by CBS News reveal in more detail the White House ballroom that is currently under construction.

The Trump administration announced in July that a 90,000-square-foot ballroom with a seated capacity for 650 people will be constructed in the White House's East Wing. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the project would be paid for by private donors and the president himself, who has committed to disclosing donors' names.

The new ballroom will be significantly larger than the main White House building, which comprises about 55,000 square feet over the ground floor, state floor and residence. That does not include the East and West Wings.

CBS News reported last week that corporate and individual donors have pledged nearly $200 million to cover construction costs, and fundraising is ongoing. Google, R.J. Reynolds, Booz Allen Hamilton, Lockheed Martin, Palantir and NextEra Energy have donated, sources told CBS News, and so have firms in the tech, manufacturing, banking and health industries.

Construction got underway on the South Lawn earlier this month. McCrery Architects PLLC is the architectural firm behind the project................


Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-white-house-ballroom-renderings-construction-details/

---

From the article: a few more at link also

[Dave Bowman]

1. That thing is fugly as hell and totally unjustified.

[ananda]

20. Remember Trump and fam are nothing but rich white trash.

They might as well build a white trailer house.

[Bayard]

22. The Clampetts come to DC

[Bengus81]

55. That's some Albert Speer NAZI looking drawings. How appropriate

[Scrivener7]

2. Jesus. And we're paying for that shit.

[Omnipresent]

6. I'm glad corporate sponsors are paying for it...

In a couple years, we will need those same sponsors to pay for the tear down.

[Scrivener7]

17. I missed that. Off to google which ones. So I can avoid them.

More graft.

ETA: looks like a lot of the usual suspects.

[subterranean]

52. Don't google the sponsors if you want to avoid them. One of them is Google!

[Scrivener7]

53. Lol! I actually do use DuckDuckGo. But it's become a verb. Like Xerox!

[Diamond_Dog]

36. If only these corporations saw fit

To donate money to build more hospitals, provide educational scholarships, green energy technology, and things like that….

[Bengus81]

56. and affordable housing......

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

39. It doesn't matter who pays for the structure.

We, the taxpayers, will pay to maintain it. And we'll have to look at it forever.

It will no longer be the People's House. It will be a monument to the billionaire class.

The only way the rest of us will see it is while standing on the poor people's side of the red velvet rope looking in.

[William Seger]

44. And we will likely pay for those balls, in the manner the elitists are accustomed to

[Lonestarblue]

45. Corporate sponsors may pay for some of the construction, but not the upkeep.

We taxpayers will foot the bill for equipping and maintaining this white elephant. And the fact that it’s so much larger than the White House should not be allowed. The recent state dinner for Trump put on by the Brits was for 160 people, and their state dinners are about as lavish as you can get. We do not need a gaudy ballroom seating 650 people.

[Autumn]

3. The new Mar a Lardo.

How the fuck can this pig face anus mouth do this/

[LymphocyteLover]

50. The answer is Republicans. Never forget.

[dweller]

4. Everything looks covered

in Nuclear ash … 😑




✌🏻

[LyfeTimeDem]

5. fucking slap in our faces

That's what the point is....it's not built for the people... its built for the Rich people.....though WE are paying for it.....while we have all our underpinnings beneath us cut out from under us.

It's literally a Confederate monument to Classism...to Class War... it very much speaks of "Handmaids Tale" to me, a Ballroom for the "Commanders".

Its also bigger than the entire White House and will put it in it's shadow. Eclipse it..m Putin is loving this.....Trump wants a giant Throne room

[malachi]

7. Stolen from Albert Speer's Portfolio

[Ray Bruns]

8. "Karoline Leavitt said the project would be paid for by private donors and the president himself"

[PatSeg]

11. Ha, ha, ha!

Maybe his wealthy donors, but we all know that Trump doesn't pay for anything he doesn't have to.

[usaf-vet]

14. When will they stop paying for it? Then, who will get the bill? My guess is you and me.

👎👎 👎 👎 👎 👎 👎 👎 👎👎 👎

[PatSeg]

25. Good point

Hard to believe how gullible some of these rich people are. Do they realize how temporary Trump is?

[William Seger]

16. Other People's Money

"It’s called OPM. I do it all the time in business. It’s called other people’s money," Trump said. "There’s nothing like doing things with other people's money because it takes the risk – you get a good chunk out of it and it takes the risk."

[PatSeg]

26. For a compulsive liar,

Trump can be bizarrely honest about the most peculiar things. He is always saying the quiet parts out loud.

[William Seger]

35. That's because lying and bragging are both used to prop up his pathetically fragile ego

Last edited Thu Sep 25, 2025, 12:33 PM - Edit history (1)

(Edited to add) ... which reminds me of this:

[PatSeg]

42. That's true

I've just found it odd that he blurts out the truth now and then about things that should harm him and his credibility, but oddly enough it doesn't. I think he actually enjoys it, like he is challenging anyone to do something about it. Of course, there are exceptions and the Epstein files is one of them. To my mind, that means he is very guilty and even he can't condone what he's done.

[yellowdogintexas]

9. I hate it. It totally dwarfs the White House which totally takes away from the image

The only marginally acceptable thing about it: the expanse of light which pours in through the tall windows. If they got rid of all the cheap gold leaf it would be helpful.

So how many state banquets or other large events does the White House host anyway? This seems like overkill (but what else would you expect). Maybe the idea is to offer it as an event center to the general public, which would be hugely expensive to rent and the money would probably go into some sort of private enterprise and not the White House budget.

We will see, won't me


It is still ugly

[PatSeg]

29. I was thinking the same thing

I had no idea it was going to be that large. Like so much of Trump's tastes, it IS ugly and obtrusive.

[greatauntoftriplets]

10. Will it be available to rent for weddings?

Damn thing spoils the White House's clean lines. What a mess.

[Bengus81]

54. Yes...but only the top 1-2% need apply. But remember it will be foisted as

the "peoples" ballroom

[KS Toronado]

12. Went to the link to get a better idea of his monstrosity

Looks like it could be larger than the White House and their inside renderings are all a big lie,
they don't show how they will construct his majesty's throne at one end.

His entire reason to build this "ballroom" was to get his throne ready after he stops elections.

Wish there was a way to stop this!

[Cirsium]

59. Much bigger

It will be much bigger than the White House, dwarfing it.

[SpankMe]

13. Un-American

The next Dem president should demolish whatever portion of the addition is completed (even if it's the whole thing) and restore the original structure.

Trump's gonna re-paint Air Force One soon. The next Dem president should restore that back to the original Jackie-O version, too.

[kkmarie]

15. Looks like a Roman temple

#EpsteinFiles
#HomanFiles

[LymphocyteLover]

48. not an accident, I'm sure

[DBoon]

58. like Nero's Domus Aurea

TRump is going after the crazed Roman tyrant look

The Domus Aurea (Latin, "Golden House&quot was a vast landscaped complex built by the Emperor Nero largely on the Oppian Hill in the heart of ancient Rome after the great fire in 64 AD had destroyed a large part of the city.[1]

...

A symbol of decadence that caused severe embarrassment to Nero's successors, the Domus Aurea was stripped of its marble, jewels, and ivory within a decade.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domus_Aurea

[electric_blue68]

60. Yup. In the GD thread on this I said I expected a "Roman Emperor" to be standing at the top of those stairs.

[Midnight Writer]

18. I reckon it has a rape room and a vomitorium.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

19. Grotesque

The East Wing will be removed for this monstrosity.

The site of the new ballroom will be where the small, heavily changed, and reconstructed East Wing currently sits.

It makes the White House look like the Girl Next Door who meets the tasteless billionaire who changes the girl's natural beauty by having her breasts enlarged to EEE so he can impress his friends.

T***p exists in a world where no one is willing to tell him "NO!"

Just because you can afford to build something doesn't mean it should be built. He was on the WH roof making plans to rebuild the West Wing in his image.

And no one seems to be able to stop him.

I bet his next project will be to replace the Lincoln Monument with one of himself -- only twice as big.

[Walleye]

30. Doesn't DC have any rules or zoning laws?

[tanyev]

41. Laws, shmaws, this is official presidentin' bizness!

[IbogaProject]

21. i eagerly await it's lawful demolotion

Only question is before or after July 4, 2029.

[LymphocyteLover]

49. SERIOUSLY. It would be poetic justice if he were inside trying to stop the wrecking ball when it went down

[Bayard]

23. No way this monstrosity is being erected all with donor money

It will be paid by Medicaid money.

[yorkster]

24. Gives me that Beware the Ides of March feeling.

Had no idea of the monstrous scale of this.

[Walleye]

27. Maga Think they will get to party there

[maxsolomon]

28. That's exceedingly large. It dwarfs the White House.

McCrery should be ashamed.

The AIA should revoke his membership.

[Ocelot II]

31. That's grotesque. It's much bigger than the White House itself.

But Albert Speer would have loved it.

[ms liberty]

32. Dear Goddess tell me this is satire, please

A frickin' Greco Roman monstrosity dominating the WH and everything around it.
Disgusting.

[LudwigPastorius]

33. It's an architectural abomination.

It looks like a neoclassical tumor attached to the White House.

Trump is now too lazy to hop on a plane to go to one of his Nazi rallies, so he'll start holding them down the hall from where he squats.

[jgmiller]

34. There's something off on the scale of the first rendering

I could be wrong of course it but looks like in that first rendering they are using a forced perspective to make it look so much larger than it really will be. If you look at the second rendering with the site of the trees and the windows it looks to be about 3 - 4 stories high so assuming about 12' for a story you're at 48' high. The White House is 70' high. Let's be generous and say this is the same height as the WH then that first rendering is still off in scale. My guess is they purposely did this for the benefit of one person's viewing.

It's still an idiotic idea and desecration of what the WH is supposed to be.

[SunSeeker]

37. It dwarfs the White House. What an abomination!

[PittBlue]

38. Why is he allowed to do this?

[LymphocyteLover]

47. the same reason he is allowed to do everything awful he is doing-- Republicans and their propaganda media

[Torchlight]

40. Reminiscent of the Palace of the Parliament

ordered by Pres. Ceaușescu of Romania prior to him being tried and convicted of sabotaging his own nation and sentenced to death for it.

[crud]

43. Where is the rendering of the golden Karaoke machine? n/t

[Ocelot II]

46. And where are the stripper poles?

[genxlib]

51. No words

I will just go with this

[AverageOldGuy]

57. Will it contain a throne room?

You know, for President for Eternity Trump?

[Fla Dem]

61. What a terrible, absolutely disgustingly horrible architectural blunder.

It completely ruins the whole concept of the elegance and uniqueness of the White House and now just looks like any other oversized building with a steep stairway and columns. The dignity of the White House and what it represented has been lost.