What will be Trump's lasting White House legacy? It's not policy or politics.
Executive orders come and go. Laws, too. But a 90,000-square-foot ballroom? That's here to stay.
- In the first six months of his second term, President Trump has moved to leave the biggest imprint on the White House complex of any president, ever.
- Think supersized flags, a paved-over Rose Garden, an Oval Office festooned with gold and gilt, and a new 90,000-square-foot ballroom.
- Not everyone is a fan of Trump's redesigns. "What's next, a spa?" one skeptic posted on the social-media platform X.
For all their furor, the executive orders President Donald Trump has signed can be overturned by the signature of his successor. If and when Democrats are back in control in Washington, the laws the Republican-controlled Congress has passed at his behest can be repealed.
But a 90,000-square-foot ballroom planted on the east side of the White House?
That will be here to stay.
Whatever Trump's political legacy turns out to be, in the first six months of his second term, he has moved to leave the biggest imprint on the White House complex of any president since John Adams first moved in on Nov. 1, 1800.
Two hundred and twenty-five years later, supersized flags raised on new 88-foot poles on the North and South lawns stretch a bit taller than the White House itself.
The iconic Rose Garden, designed by Jacqueline Kennedy, has been paved over with what Trump admiringly calls a "very white" stone, making it more resort patio than leafy retreat.
The Oval Office has been festooned with gilt and gold on the fireplace and the walls and even the ceiling. "You know, we handle it with great love and 24 karat gold," he boasted to visiting Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
And the ballroom looms as the biggest project of them all, and one that is hard to imagine reversing. Construction of the $200 million structure is scheduled to begin in September, with financing that the president says will come from himself and "patriot" donors. He promises it will be completed in time to begin celebrating before his lease on the property expires on Jan. 20, 2029.
If the second-floor addition to the White House residence in 1948 is universally called the Truman Balcony, it seems more than likely that future presidents will be holding state dinners and other fancy affairs in what will forever be known as the Trump Ballroom.
Renovating the real estate, remodeling the set
Perhaps it's no surprise that a president who came to prominence as a real estate developer and reality-TV star would be eager to put his stamp on his surroundings. He has been renovating the grounds and remodeling the office where he conducts the business of the presidency, often in front of TV cameras streaming the scene live.
"They've wanted a ballroom at the White House for more than 150 years, but there's never been a president that was good at ballrooms," he said in response to a question posed recently by Paste BN's Joey Garrison. Trump noted that his golf resort at Turnberry in Scotland had a new "incredible" ballroom and added: "I'm good at building things."
His inspiration? There's a clear resemblance to Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach club and voting address. There, the Donald J. Trump Grand Ballroom was completed in 2005, with his wedding to Melania Knauss being the first event. The room features a reported $7 million in gold leaf and crystal chandeliers.
The new White House ballroom will also include crystal chandeliers as well as coffered ceilings, arched windows, Corinthian columns and room for 650 dinner guests, more than triple the 200 who can now be accommodated in the East Room.
Trump's love of the regal may have been forged at age 6, when he sat with his Scottish-born mother to watch the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in London. In his book, "The Art of the Deal," he called it one of his earliest memories.
His father "was very brick-and-mortar," he later said, but his mother "loved the ceremonial and the beauty because no one does that like the English."
Among presidents, not the first, but the most
Not everyone is enthusiastic about Trump's redesigns.
Critics complain he has turned the Rose Garden into a parking lot and the Oval Office into a sea of bling. Memes on social media ridicule the new ballroom; one portrays it as a giant McDonald's. "What's next, a spa?" one skeptic posted on the platform X.
Still, other presidents have made significant changes to the White House, often prompting protests from traditionalists worried about the cost and the aesthetics.
John Adams, the second president and first resident, is memorialized by a blessing etched on the fireplace in the State Dining Room. "I Pray Heaven To Bestow The Best Of Blessings On This House And All that shall hereafter Inhabit it," it reads. "May none but Honest and Wise Men ever rule under This Roof."
But he didn't order the inscription of the quotation, taken from a letter he wrote to his wife, Abigail Adams. That was done by Franklin Roosevelt in 1945.
Thomas Jefferson added colonnades, Andrew Jackson the North Portico and Theodore Roosevelt the West Wing, to provide the Oval Office for presidents and space for their staff. FDR oversaw the construction of the East Wing to create offices for the first lady and also conceal the construction of an underground bunker.
(The Presidential Emergency Operations Center, dubbed PEOC, was where Vice President Dick Cheney and first lady Laura Bush were hurried after the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001.)
But none of those match the number of changes Trump has launched and their scale. His personal engagement is also notable, including a surprise visit to the roof of the White House on Aug. 5 to take "a little walk" and view the area where the latest addition will be built.
Consider this: The ballroom's square footage not only dwarfs the East Wing. It's also nearly triple the size of the West Wing. It's two-thirds larger than the 55,000 square feet of the White House itself − all six floors, combined.