Whenever I take visitors on a tour of the White House press room, the reaction is invariably the same: “It’s so small!”
As seen on TV, the space can appear grand. But in real life, it’s pretty cramped. With just 49 seats, briefings are often standing-room-only. Additional reporters squeeze in along the edges, waving furiously to get the press secretary’s attention.
Other spaces at the White House also seem smaller than life. The Oval Office can fit only a few dozen people, and even fewer when it becomes a set for a live broadcast. The upstairs residence, which I toured in 2007 at a luncheon with first lady Laura Bush, is comfortable but modestly sized. Guest lists for state dinners in the East Room – the Executive Mansion’s largest event space – are of necessity restricted to about 200 people. For bigger parties, the White House sets up a tent on the South Lawn.
Why We Wrote This
From a newly gilded Oval Office to a paved-over Rose Garden, President Donald Trump has been busy with various renovation projects since moving back into the White House. While the historic complex has undergone many changes and updates throughout the years, Mr. Trump’s plan for a massive new ballroom is raising eyebrows.
Which brings us to President Donald Trump’s plan to add a 90,000-square-foot ballroom to the East Wing of the White House, meant to accommodate 650 people. Amid debate over how often a president would throw a party for that many people, the fact is that Mr. Trump, by profession a real estate developer, is nothing if not larger than life. And he wants his living spaces to reflect that. The planned structure will cover 2.1 acres – nearly double the size of the central White House edifice, which is 55,000 square feet.
“In a way this ballroom is part of a franchise – a Trump ballroom franchise … more than something that’s organic to the White House experience and history,” says Martha Joynt Kumar, an emerita presidential scholar at Towson University.
In the architect’s renderings of the new ballroom, it’s hard not to see strong similarities to ballrooms at other Trump properties, including his golf course in Turnberry, Scotland, and his Palm Beach, Florida, estate, Mar-a-Lago.
I got to experience the gilded ballroom on my first visit to Mar-a-Lago back in March 2016, when the future president held his Florida primary victory celebration there over home-state Sen. Marco Rubio. The room fairly gleamed with opulence, as club members cheered the budding politician.
The White House ballroom proposal is not Mr. Trump’s first home improvement project since returning to the presidency. The Rose Garden still has its roses, but the lawn has been paved over, much like the patio at Mar-a-Lago. In June, Mr. Trump installed massive white poles with American flags on both the North and South Lawns. The Oval Office is now drenched in gold filigree – on the picture frames, on the fireplace, on the cherubs that peer down from above the doorways.
“FDR took America off the gold standard. It appears Trump is restoring it – one room at a time,” says presidential historian David Pietrusza.
With all these renovations, the president is taking a hands-on approach. On Tuesday, reporters spotted Mr. Trump walking along the flat roof of the White House briefing room, and asked him what he was doing. “Taking a walk,” he said, and looking for “just another way to spend my money for the country.” When asked if he was considering more renovations, he motioned with his hands and said: “Something beautiful.”
The new ballroom’s projected cost of $200 million would be paid for with private funds, including his own money, Mr. Trump says. Construction is to begin in September, and will be completed before the end of his second term, according to his press secretary.
Outside observers doubt such a massive project can be completed for just $200 million – see the Federal Reserve renovation, now at $2.5 billion – or be finished by January 2029. Some also question whether the new ballroom will be nearly as big as Mr. Trump says, with a proposed size equal to almost two football fields.
Thus far, there’s been no mention of other government agencies playing a role. When Mr. Trump added a 1,200-square-foot tennis pavilion to the White House grounds in his first term, an executive branch agency called the National Capital Planning Commission was involved.
If Mr. Trump’s first term was about figuring out what he had the power to do, the second term is about just doing it – from policy to politics to a White House makeover. The anti-Trump outrage machine is responding as expected, with some suggesting that the ballroom project is another sign that he intends to stay in power beyond his second term and make good use of the new event space.
Critics also say the private funding of White House renovations opens the door to contributions from people trying to curry favor with the president, including foreign actors. So far, donor identities have not been disclosed.
Still, what Mr. Trump is doing is hardly unprecedented. Ever since the White House opened to its first occupants, President John Adams and his wife, Abigail, in 1800, it has gotten regular upgrades and additions – including a total reconstruction after the British burned the place down in 1814. The South Portico was added in 1824, the North Portico in 1830.
In the 20th century, noteworthy additions included an indoor swimming pool (1933) for President Franklin Roosevelt and the Truman Balcony (1948). During the presidency of Harry Truman, the rickety White House required such extensive renovations that the Trumans moved across Pennsylvania Avenue to Blair House for three years.
In 1970, during the Nixon presidency, the swimming pool was covered over and the briefing room installed. To this day, one can enter a doorway behind the podium and walk down a staircase into the old swimming pool.
Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the White House is its triple service as a residence, an office, and a museum. And it’s not just any multi-use building. It needs to be secure from intruders, bullets, and terrorist attacks. In 2019, a taller perimeter fence was erected, now roughly 13 feet high, with “anti-climb” technology.
The White House is “ever-changing,” writes Stewart McLaurin, White House Historical Association president. “It is difficult for us to imagine the White House today without these evolutions and alterations.”