President Donald Trump described the poor condition of the White House he inherited after moving back in last January at a Tuesday dinner, using the speech to tout his improvement plan.
“It’s not properly taken care of,” Trump said, referencing the executive mansion.
“I was told by my wife, you have to act presidential, so don’t use foul language. I won’t. Therefore, normally I would have said it was a s*** house, but I don’t want to say that,” the president joked, adding that the columns were falling down and the plaster was falling off.
“I paid for it myself, all of the stone, all of the different things we have, and we’re bringing the White House back to shape,” Trump added.
Trump also took some time to promote his White House ballroom project.
“We’re building a ballroom in the back, which will be, I think, the most beautiful ballroom anywhere in the world,” he told dinner guests.
He also promoted the safety features of his new ballroom, pointing to the recent attempt on his life at a press gala in April.
“It’s going to be a very safe ballroom,” Trump said, adding that it would have 6-inch glass that you could “look through it and you can see as perfectly as though it weren’t there.”
The proposed 90,000-square-foot ballroom is slated to cost $400 million and hold close to 1,000 guests. In October, the East Wing of the executive mansion was torn down to be replaced by the ballroom, drawing substantial backlash from historians, lawmakers, and citizens.
The venue is set to be completed in summer 2028.
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Trump’s comments come as his various construction projects throughout Washington, D.C., and the surrounding areas face mounting legal troubles.
On Monday, a nonprofit group sued the Trump administration’s renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, arguing that the Department of the Interior altered the pool to the extent of changing its natural character.