In a late July press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt followed-up on comments from an interview that President Trump gave about a major, upcoming renovation to the historic building–the addition of a massive ballroom:
During a White House press briefing on Thursday, Leavitt announced that construction will begin in September on the new 90,000-square-foot ballroom at the White House.
…
“The White House state ballroom will be a much-needed and exquisite addition of approximately 90,000 total square feet of innately designed and carefully crafted space with a seated capacity of 650 people,” Leavitt told the press. “Which is a significant increase from the 200-person seated capacity in the East Room of the White House.”
She said, over the last few weeks, Trump has held meetings with numerous departments to discuss design features and planning. Leavitt said he’s also chosen McCrery Architects as the lead architect, which is based in Washington, D.C. She said the company is well known for “classical architectural design.”
“The WH Ballroom construction will begin in Sept of 2025, and it is expected to be completed long before the end of President Trump’s term,” Leavitt shared. “President Trump and other donors have committed to donate funds necessary to build this 200 million infrastructure.”
Leavitt added that “the site of the new ballroom will be where the small, heavily changed and reconstructed East Wing currently sits.”
READ MORE: Trump Reveals More Changes Coming to the White House – Cue Dem and Media Meltdown
Karoline Leavitt Reveals Details, Images About Upcoming Grand White House Expansion
Now, it’s pretty normal to see members of the White House press corps jockeying for the president’s attention, by shouting questions at him whenever he moves about the grounds, especially while walking to or from a waiting Air Force 2.
Their interactions with Trump on Tuesday morning was much more unusual, though, when they spotted him walking with a group of people on the roof of the White House.
🚨This is unbelievable.
President Trump is on the ROOF of the White House — and he’s STILL taking questions from the press!
There’s NO DOUBT that this is the most transparent administration! pic.twitter.com/iZVwjZhyc4
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 5, 2025
Here’s another view:
POTUS is on the roof of the White House— asked why he’s up there, he shouts back to us through his hands: “just taking a little walk” pic.twitter.com/VhsYDAn8wS
— Alayna Treene (@alaynatreene) August 5, 2025
And while it’s pretty difficult to make out most of what Trump is saying in any of the clips, in this one, shared by official Trump White House X account, Rapid Response 47, the caption states he’s saying that he’s “taking a little look.” not “walk”:
REPORTER: “Mr. President, what are you doing up there?”@POTUS: “Taking a little look!”
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) August 5, 2025
The best part of this situation is how the press reacts, as they keep throwing out outlandish questions about potential new additions to the WH, including one about the possibility of putting on “another level.”
CSPAN’s communications director Howard Mortman transcribed a helpful list of the press corps’ shouted questions on his X account:
“Sir, why are you are on the roof?”
“Mr. President, what are you doing up there?”
“Come down and talk to us!”
“What are you building?”
“Are you considering more renovations, sir?”
“Are you going to building up there?”
“Add another level?”
– White House press corps to Pres. Trump
Turns out he is just checking things out with James McCrery, the architect overseeing that new ballroom addition:
Trump was walking around with James McCrery, the architect working on the new White House ballroom. https://t.co/z5KfJBYqI8
— Weijia Jiang (@weijia) August 5, 2025
Readers might recall back in mid-June, when the president held several impromptu pressers on the White House lawn while a construction crew installed some new, huge flag poles, as my colleague Katie Jerkovich wrote. And American taxpayers weren’t on the hook for the project:
The project was completed in June at Trump’s personal expense, and pictures and videos of the flags flying high next to the White House look terrific.
In a similar fashion without missing a beat on Tuesday, Pres. Trump reminds the gaggle down below him who is contributing the money to pay for the projects:
.@POTUS on the White House roof inspecting his improvement projects: “Anything I do is financed by me, so you don’t have to worry. It’s contributed — just like my salary is contributed.” pic.twitter.com/dF93oztTHE
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) August 5, 2025
How fun is this Trump 47 presidency?
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