White House State Ballroom

The White House State Ballroom is a planned expansion to the East Wing of the White House in Washington, D.C. Officially announced on July 31, 2025, the expansion is planned to result in a 90,000-square-foot (8,360 m²) venue with a seating capacity of approximately 650 people. The ballroom was originally proposed by President Donald Trump. According to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, the project will be privately funded by Trump and private donors, with an estimated cost of $200 million. Construction is expected to begin in September 2025 and finish before Trump's term ends in 2029.

At present formal events at the White House are held in the East Room, which has a seating capacity of 200 people or in tents specially constructed on the White House grounds for state dinners.^[2] Trump described the tents used for events as "not a pretty sight".^[2]

During Barack Obama’s first term in office, at least as early as 2010, then-private citizen Trump spoke to senior advisor David Axelrod and expressed a desire to build a ballroom on White House grounds.^[3][4] In 2016, during the second term of the presidency of Barack Obama, then-candidate Trump offered to pay $100 million to fund a ballroom at the White House but was rejected.^[2][5] The White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt described the proposed ballroom as "much needed and exquisite" and that it would be completed before the end of Trump's presidency in January 2029.^[2]

Trump has said that there has "never been a President that's good at ballrooms" and that he was "good at building things". He has said that he could take the ballroom of his Trump Turnberry golf club " ... drop it right down there, and it would be beautiful".^[2]

The construction of the ballroom is estimated to be $200 million, with the cost met by President Donald Trump and several anonymous private donors.^[6][2] Construction is expected to begin in September 2025 and finish before Trump's term ends in 2029.^[7][8][9] The East Wing of the White House will be "modernized" at the same time as the ballroom is constructed.^[2]

BBC News described the proposed interior as being "lavish ... including chandeliers and ornate columns".^[2] The announcement stated that the project will be an addition of 90,000 sq ft (8,360 sq m); despite interpretations that this referred to the size of the ballroom itself, an analysis based on released renderings of the plans suggested that this would be impossible and the 90,000 sq ft referred to the full floor area of the planned new East Wing, with the ballroom's floor area being closer to 25,000 sq ft (2,300 m²).^[10] Critics of the project described the ornamentation as out of touch, ostentatious, and as fitting in with Trump's larger-scale renovations of the White House with gold. The Hill described the timing of the renovations as poor, coming in amidst poor jobs reports and concerns over Trump's tariffs on the greater economy.^[11]

Ethics experts cited concern over the private funding of the renovation and possible conflicts of interest and attempts by donors to influence the president, and the White House did not answer whether a competitive bidding process was followed.^[12]

Experts interviewed by The New York Times described the proposed timetable for completion before 2029 as "optimistic". It cited concerns and doubt among historians and preservationists that the construction would focus on preservation and noted that the White House was exempt from the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. The building is instead overseen by non-binding recommendations of the Committee for the Preservation of the White House.^[13]

On August 10, 2025, The Washington Post reported that the project had not yet been submitted for review to the National Capital Planning Commission as required by federal law, and that such approvals often took years. The administration claimed that a 1964 executive order allowed the president to bypass the commission, but after the Post reported remarked on the legal requirement, the White House said the commission "will be a part of that process at the appropriate time."^[14]