President Donald Trump sat down for an interview with his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, where he chit-chatted about the construction of the White House ballroom and gave her a tour of the site where the building is coming together. During the tour, the president informed Lara that he plans to hold the next presidential inauguration in the ballroom.
“It’s a great facility, and we’re going to have the inauguration here,” Trump told his daughter-in-law on Fox News. “It’s going to hold…I had mine in the Capitol. In the Capitol, I had 902 people, and it was still beautiful, but it was 902 people, and it’s not safe like this.” He went on to say that future presidents will be using the facility for the next “200 years” and pointed out he himself will not likely get a lot of use out of it.
“I’ll have it for about six months. In other words, when it’s finished … I’ll only have the use of it for six months,” Trump went on to say in the interview. The conversation with Lara aired a few hours after Trump spent a good portion of the day coming out against a federal judge who issued a ruling that he must take his name off the Kennedy Center and halt his renovation plans.
According to Yahoo News, the chat between the two family members started with President Trump discussing his work against Democrats attempting to thwart his agenda and his military actions in Iran. Before taking his daughter-in-law on the tour, Lara Trump slammed the mainstream media for “melting down” over the ballroom project. Democrats have complained that the president began the project without first getting congressional approval.
“Unsurprisingly … left-wing pundits are melting down over the ballroom project. So, what’s all the fuss about?” Lara Trump said during the interview. Trump himself proclaimed that the ballroom was a “gift to America,” going on to add, “From me, and from Apple, and from lots of great people and companies.” He then talked about the $400 million price tag for the ballroom, which he said has been fully funded by private donors.
He then went on to say that the project would be both the “greatest” facility of its kind and that it would be the “most secure facility ever built.” Trump then revealed that both the military and Secret Service are involved with its construction. Democrats, in the meantime, have been working hard to try and thwart President Trump’s project.
Roughly 150 Democratic lawmakers filed a legal brief on May 28, 2026, claiming that the construction of the project cannot continue until the administration gets express consent from Congress. “The President cannot undertake any construction at the White House—much less demolish one of its wings—without clear authorization from Congress, as well as an appropriation of funds to do so,” lawyers for the Democrats said in the brief, according to CBS News.
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The coalition of lawmakers opposing the project is being led by Reps. Robert Garcia and Jared Huffman of California, and Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse. They say that the president does not have the right to tear down or alter structures or build new ones on White House property because “[t]he Constitution grants Congress exclusive control over all federal property,” and it has not yet approved funding or authorization for the ballroom.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, along with the Campaign Legal Center, two nonprofit organizations supposedly focused on government ethics stated that accepting private donations from both companies and individuals before the government creates a conflict of interest. They assert that Congress should appropriate the money for the ballroom, writing, “This is a check against both Executive extravagance and the risk of corrupting influence.”