Trump wants a bigger White House ballroom. His architect disagrees.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Washington Post

WP Exclusive

Trump wants a bigger White House ballroom. His architect disagrees.

The president and James McCrery had argued in recent weeks over the project's size, with Trump pushing him to expand the ballroom.

Today at 5:00 a.m. EST
6 min
By Jonathan Edwards and Dan Diamond

President Donald Trump has argued with the architect he handpicked to design a White House ballroom over the size of the project, reflecting a conflict between architectural norms and Trump's grandiose aesthetic, according to four people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal conversations.

Trump's desire to go big with the project has put him at odds with architect James McCrery II, the people said, who has counseled restraint over concerns the planned 90,000-square-foot addition could dwarf the 55,000-square-foot mansion in violation of a general architectural rule: don't build an addition that overshadows the main building.

Trump’s intense focus on the project and insistence on realizing his vision over the objections of his own hire, historic preservationists and others concerned by a lack of public input in the project reflect his singular belief in himself as a tastemaker and obsessive attention to details.

In the first 10 months of his second term, Trump has waged a campaign to remake the White House in his gilded aesthetic and done so unilaterally — using a who’s-going-to-stop-me ethos he honed for decades as a developer.

{paywall}

https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/jonathan-edwards/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/dan-diamond/

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/11/26/trump-ballroom-architect-james-mccrery/

[GPV]

1. It's not a ballroom, it's a convention center.

[Botany]

14. It is a shake down shake

N/t

[mdbl]

41. It's disgustingly ugly

Just like the other crap he builds.

[Trueblue1968]

50. Hideous just like DonOLD Rumps body !!!!!

[Zelda_Orchid]

45. And when Trump is gone

It's a place where the MAGAs can be put on trial.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

54. Welcome to DU

[popsdenver]

53. No

it's a grifting center............

[nuxvomica]

2. Amber Ruffin had the best take on the ballroom

She said something like it was an awfully big ballroom for a bunch of people who can't even dance.

[FailureToCommunicate]

3. It makes sense he wants some space big enough to hold all his admirers...

[sop]

5. Maybe Trump can replace the current architect with the ghost of Albert Speer?

[KS Toronado]

6. 100% correct

[evolves]

10. Then wouldn't a small closet

work better?

[littlemissmartypants]

43. DUzy!!🏆🏅

[sop]

4. Trump bought the White House as a tear down, to be completely razed and replaced with his vision of Xanadu,

the stately pleasure palace of Kubla Krasnov (my apologies to Coleridge).

[PatSeg]

17. He had already complained

during his first term that the White House was a "dump". He's rectifying that problem in his second term. All that money can't buy him taste.

[Blumancru]

38. Cost? No one can say....and he doesn't care.

[highplainsdem]

7. "His singular belief in himself as a tastemaker" - make that "His stupidity and narcissism"

[MiHale]

8. I'm waiting for the ballroom tear down in a few years...

That monument to corruption cannot be allowed to remain after trumpig is gone.

[ToxMarz]

12. Trump keeps claiming it's being done with private money

Though I don't believe anything he says. But if so, it won't be taxpayer dollars being torn down.

[Escape]

9. Hopefully, sometime in the future...

..when Trump has been expunged from relevance, his ostentatious "ball room" will be converted to something exactly opposite it's current stated purpose.

[Augiedog]

11. Stupid ballroom will just end up in a landfill

[travelingthrulife]

13. Why is he being allowed to do this???

[sop]

19. That's the question I've asked myself a million times.

[Farmer-Rick]

15. Time to tear down more of the white house

When he's done with it, we will be lucky to have the oval office still. It already looks like a fairy threw up gold glitter all over it.

He's looking for a warehouse with gold and chandeliers. The colossal warehouse will have bedrooms upstairs for his kiddie stroll that he stashed from ICE raids. He knows how to sex traffic and he needs more room than what he has at Mara logo.

[slightlv]

37. Kiddie stroll...

Thank u for remembering. Some of us haven't forgotten the long line of kids standing in line to be disappeared during his first term.

The Truth and Reconciliation Council that must happen before Trump dies must have him unequivocally account for the whereabouts of each child or be indicted for either trafficking or murder of each unidentified. Im still livid about this after all these years.

[MissouriDem47]

16. I Call It "Donnie's Dance Hall"

[patphil]

18. I'm not certain they'll actually finish the ballroom project.

Right now it looks like a typical Trumpian grift. Is he actually going to pay the people who work on it? History of Trump projects says at best maybe, or more probably just plain no.
It's supposedly being financed by donors, so, using Trump logic, the money is his. If the mid-terms go badly, he may just take the money and leave the mess.
And there's always the possibility he'll be incapacitated, or even die in office.
Either way the taxpayer gets to pay for restoring the East Wing, and finishing, or removing, the ballroom.

And the shit show of Trump's presidency continues.

[lonely bird]

25. Agreed

Why would anyone do business with that grifting asshole?

[RockCreek]

32. All donors and others abetting a demolishing a public landmark

need to be on the hook for removal of the abomination left behind, and replacement with an architecturally appropriate building or restoration.

[patphil]

46. Restoration sounds right to me.

If the next President wants a ballroom, s/he can do it the right way, with Congress putting up the money.
In any event, someone is going to have to pay for the restoration of the East Wing. One way or another it should be Trump, or his estate.

I prefer it to be his estate.

[RockCreek]

47. His estate sounds perfect!!

[littlemissmartypants]

44. Ditto. ❤️

[BradBo]

20. It's gonna be GOD awful.

[Half-step]

21. Well, if it really boils down to the ratio of the footprints,

... Destroying the East Wing probably didn't help.

[travelingthrulife]

22. Just say it WaPo. The tear down of the white house was completely illegal.

[Sedona]

23. Who is his architect? Albert Speer?

[ChicagoTeamster]

24. Trump wants his bigger just to brag. He called into CNN's 9/11 coverage to brag his building was now the tallest in NYC.

That's the kind of person he is. And the meaningless ARCH he wants to build in Washington, D.C. near the Lincoln Memorial to commemorate the United States' 250th anniversary with all it's winged creatures like something out of France mixed with something out of Babylon. Hitler added ballrooms to government buildings as well. And his design for the ballroom is modelled on Versailles as is his Mar a Lago ballroom. Same with all the gold trim he's added to the White House. (Rumor has it the White House got cheap imitation gold while the real gold that was purchase was repurposed to somewhere else).

Cutting funding for health care subsidies, cancer research etc., and spending billions on adding his own Gaudi flair to Washington DC in a way that people won't be able to ignore.

[Ocelot II]

29. Interesting that he's so concerned with size.

But at least according to Stormy Daniels, he should be. I'm not Dr. Sigmund Freud, nor do I play him on TV, but...

[LetMyPeopleVote]

26. trump is ruining the White House

[Srkdqltr]

27. Is it being built yet? Or are they still just talking.?

[Turbineguy]

28. It will just be more expensive

to tear down.

[Dave Bowman]

30. That filthy swine really believe he's a king.

[twodogsbarking]

31. It's gonna be a casino. Wait and see.

You get a tax deduction every time you lose money, which will be, well, every time.

[SpankMe]

33. "who's-going-to-stop-me" ethos

This defines his whole being. I only hope that if a Dem ever gets in there again, a massive undoing of Trump's massive program will be executed with that same ethos. Day 1: bulldoze the ballroom.

[3catwoman3]

34. Does it need to be so huge so that all the ladies can go back...

...to wearing Scarlett O'Hara- voluminous ballgowns without crowding the dance floor? Will this be after he brings back slavery?

This is the image that I keep getting in my mind.

[underpants]

35. Who or how was the demolition company paid?

Have they been paid?

There has to be some entity making the payment.

[Blue Full Moon]

36. He needs it before he ends in the bunker like his hero

[Blumancru]

39. Does it have a fireplace where his childhood sled will be burned?

[Bayard]

40. He needs it enlarged to install his gigantic gold throne

If Congress/rethuglicans had any guts, they would enact a law now to keep him from flattening the rest of the White House. Make it veto-proof.

[Buddyzbuddy]

42. So much of the Presidency and the Administration has been for sale

the Felon should just open it up as
an open-air swap meet. In almost 80 years he hasn't learned, you can't buy class.

Let's see,
Tesla's on the front lawn, ✔️,

home torn up with no plan (just before winter) check,

incestuous thoughts of his daughter, check,

felony record, check,

very attracted to underage girls, ✔️

and a "hillbilly" for his V.P..

No wonder MAGA love this guy.

[struggle4progress]

48. "First, the destruction! We can plan the improvements later!"

[truthisfreedom]

49. Let him. We'll tear it down when he's gone.

Or turn it into homeless housing.

[DBoon]

51. He has shown the same reckless bad taste his entire life

Firing torpedoes into the reputation of Donald Trump, the latest Doonesbury collection targets the "Trump Princess" where commode artist J.J. Caucus struggles to maintain her integrity as she plays Picasso on the bathroom wall of a floating mansion

Published in 1989

[vanessa_ca]

52. Appalling -eom

[LudwigPastorius]

55. Don't worry about it, McCrery.

We're just going to tear that shit down after Trump shuffles back to Mar-a-Lago for good.