Trump starts construction on long-held dream: A White House ballroom

Work crews have started cutting down trees, removing shrubs and digging up parts of the South Lawn of the White House as they begin work on President Donald Trump’s project to construct a $200 million, 90,000-square-foot ballroom on a site just south of the building’s East Wing.

“Right there, you see all the trucks?” Trump asked reporters Thursday while on the South Lawn and pointing toward the East Wing. “They’ve just started construction of the new ballroom.”

Details of the project remain shrouded in secrecy and uncertainty. The White House has not released architectural plans for the building or its exact location and has, so far, not submitted the project to the National Capital Planning Commission, the government body that typically reviews plans for changes to federal property in the capital region.

Officials have not specified how many trees on the mansion’s grounds will be removed to make way for the new ballroom.

On Thursday, a White House official said crews are in the “preservation stage,” in which they remove trees, shrubs and other foliage to an off-site nursery for safekeeping. The official said those efforts could last several weeks. The official referred questions about landscaping details to the National Park Service, which manages the White House grounds.

A spokeswoman for the Park Service said she could not give the number of White House trees affected by the project or the status of those that had already been trimmed or felled.

“The National Park Service takes great care to honor the historic landscape of the White House and President’s Park,” spokeswoman Jasmine Shanti said in an email.

“When feasible, trees are preserved and nurtured so they can thrive and eventually be replanted,” she added.

Videos and photos obtained by The Washington Post show crews sawing off the limbs of one tree before cutting it down, then preparing to work on a larger one next to it.

In addition to the landscaping work, offices in the East Wing, including those of the first lady, the military’s White House liaisons and the visitors center, have been temporarily relocated, the White House official said.

The National Capital Planning Commission does not have jurisdiction over demolition and site preparation for the ballroom project, commission chair Will Scharf said Sept. 4 at the body’s monthly meeting. Trump appointed Scharf in July to chair the commission.

The agency will play a “productive role” in the “construction of vertical building” in the future, said Scharf, who also holds the job of White House staff secretary and is publicly known for summarizing executive orders before placing them in front of the president to sign.

On July 31, the White House announced plans for the ballroom, which would be one of the biggest changes to “the People’s House” in a century. Since then, Trump has repeatedly highlighted the need for a larger space to host world leaders. The largest room at the White House seats 200 people, while the proposed ballroom would seat more than three times that number.

Large-scale dinners and other functions have been hosted in tents on the South Lawn, which is logistically complex and, in Trump’s view, inadequate.

Trump has wanted to construct a ballroom at the White House since at least 2010, when he offered to do so but was rebuffed by the Obama administration. He recounted the exchange in his 2015 book, “Time to Get Tough,” saying he was inspired when he watched officials trot out “an old, broken, rotten-looking tent” to host large groups of VIP guests.

“That’s no way for America to host important meetings and dinners with world leaders and dignitaries,” Trump wrote. “We should project our nation’s power and beauty with a proper facility and ballroom.”

Then Trump pitched himself as the man for the job: “If there’s one thing I know how to build, it’s a grand ballroom. At my private Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, I built what many consider to be the single greatest ballroom in the world…but I own many beautiful and very successful ballrooms.”

Trump has promised to use no public money to pay for the project, saying that private donations will cover it and that he will write a check if necessary. He promised to release the names of donors. To date, the White House has not said if any funds already have been solicited for the project.

Trump was with architects and designers reviewing plans for the ballroom on Wednesday afternoon when he learned that conservative activist Charlie Kirk had been fatally shot, he said Friday during an interview with Fox & Friends. He was in disbelief upon hearing news of “the worst thing,” he said, adding that he ordered everyone to leave.

On Thursday, while heading to Marine One en route to New York, where he attended a Yankees game, Trump thanked a reporter for offering condolences for Kirk’s death. When asked how he was holding up, Trump said, “I think, very good” before quickly pivoting to the ballroom.

“It’s going to be a beauty. It’ll be an absolutely magnificent structure,” he yelled over the roar of the helicopter. “And you can see all the trucks. We just started. So it’ll get done, very nicely, and it’ll be one of the best anywhere in the world.”