The president said that the wing he described as a separate building “was never thought of as being much; it was a very small building”. “Rather than allowing that to hurt a very expensive, beautiful building,” he continued. “In order to do it properly, we had to take down the existing structure.”
Demolition work of the East Wing began earlier this week, making Trump's dream of building a ‘big, beautiful ballroom’ worth $250 million a reality.
About the project
The construction of the ‘big, beautiful ballroom’ is the first major addition to the White House in more than a century.
Traditionally, US first ladies have maintained their offices in the East Wing, while the president conducts business from the West Wing. The couple resides together in the Executive Mansion.
While Trump claims that the East Wing is “completely separate from the White House itself,” it is linked to the main mansion by a covered colonnade.
Trump claims the new 90,000-square-foot ballroom, which can accommodate up to 1,000 guests, is necessary for hosting large state dinners and other events that are currently held in tents.
Who are the donors?
- Altria Group, Inc.
- Amazon
- Apple
- Booz Allen Hamilton
- Caterpillar, Inc.
- Coinbase
- Comcast Corporation
- J. Pepe and Emilia Fanjul
- Hard Rock International
- HP Inc.
- Lockheed Martin
- Meta Platforms
- Micron Technology
- Microsoft
- NextEra Energy, Inc.
- Palantir Technologies Inc.
- Ripple
- Reynolds American
- T-Mobile
- Tether America
- Union Pacific Railroad
- Adelson Family Foundation
- Stefan E. Brodie
- Betty Wold Johnson Foundation
- Charles and Marissa Cascarilla
- Edward and Shari Glazer
- Harold Hamm
- Benjamin Leon Jr.
- The Lutnick Family
- The Laura & Isaac Perlmutter Foundation
- Stephen A. Schwarzman
- Konstantin Sokolov
- Kelly Loeffler and Jeff Sprecher
- Paolo Tiramani
- Cameron Winklevoss
- Tyler Winklevoss
