{"id":357210,"date":"2025-10-25T09:41:37","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T04:11:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/?p=357210"},"modified":"2025-10-25T09:41:38","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T04:11:38","slug":"now-trump-in-middle-of-white-house-ballroom-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/now-trump-in-middle-of-white-house-ballroom-drama\/","title":{"rendered":"Now, Trump in middle of White House ‘ballroom’ drama"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

White House ballroom renovation has sparked legal storm, political fireworks, personal slugfest between presidential children <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo: courtesy White House website <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

U.S. President Donald Trump is again at the centre of a controversy \u2014 this time over the demolition of the White House\u2019s East Wing to make way for a lavish ballroom. The $300 million project, which Trump says is privately funded, has drawn both legal and political backlash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Virginia couple has reportedly filed an emergency motion in a federal court seeking to halt construction, arguing that the plan violates federal preservation and planning laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this week, Trump announced that construction was already underway, calling it a long-overdue modernization of the historic residence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor more than 150 years, every President has dreamt about having a Ballroom at the White House to accommodate people for grand parties, State Visits, etc. I am honored to be the first President to finally get this much-needed project underway \u2014 with zero cost to the American Taxpayer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe White House Ballroom is being privately funded by many generous Patriots, Great American Companies, and, yours truly. This Ballroom will be happily used for Generations to come!\u201d he wrote on social media, drawing backlash from Democrats, who accused Trump of damaging the historic White House. The Trump administration says that renovations and modernisations are a normal part of White House upkeep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the decision, noting that previous presidents also made renovations, and even recalled Barack Obama\u2019s complaint about hosting state dinners in outdoor tents due to limited indoor space. Meanwhile, rumours that the new space would be named \u201cThe President Donald J. Trump Ballroom\u201d are also being trashed by the administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the controversy also took a personal turn when former President Bill Clinton\u2019s Chelsea Clinton condemned the project, calling it \u201can attack on heritage, democracy, and the rule of law.\u201d \u201cThe erasure of the East Wing isn’t just about marble or plaster \u2014 it’s about President Trump again taking a wrecking ball to our heritage, while targeting our democracy, and the rule-of-law,\u201d she wrote on social media. In response, Donald Trump Jr. reignited old political controversy and invoked her father\u2019s infidelity scandal involving former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. \u201cLol, your parents tried stealing furniture and silverware from the White House,” Trump Jr. alleged, also writing, \u201cAnd let\u2019s not talk about the intern. Sit this one out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

White House ballroom renovation has sparked legal storm, political fireworks, personal slugfest between presidential children U.S. President Donald Trump is again at the centre of a controversy \u2014 this time over the demolition of the White House\u2019s East Wing to make way for a lavish ballroom. The $300 million project, which Trump says is privately […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":187,"featured_media":357211,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[53],"tags":[18841,19170],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357210"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/187"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357210"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":357212,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357210\/revisions\/357212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/357211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}