that's about the size of it

 

 

The White House is owned by the federal government of the United States and belongs to the American people. The sitting president does not own the property, but acts only as a temporary resident and steward,

 

The White House is 168 feet long, 152 feet wide, and 70 feet tall on the South side. In total, it covers 55,000 square feet across 6 floors. There are 132 rooms, 35 bathrooms, and 3 kitchens.

The East Wing of the White House was originally built in 1902, and expanded in 1942, when an underground bunker was added. Since WWII was being fought, it was necessary to add The Presidential Emergency Center Operations Center to provide additional security.

    

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Wing#:~:text=The%20East%20Wing%20was%20a,1942%2C%20and%20demolished%20in%202025.

In July 2025, the White House released renderings of the planned White House State Ballroom. Initially, the venue was expected to be able to host up to 650 people for events, but that capacity was later revised to 999 people. Clark Construction was awarded the $200 million contract, with work planned to begin in September 2025.

In case you are wondering, Clark Construction was founded in 1906, and is one of the largest building and infrastructure companies in the United States.

About Us | Clark Construction

On July 31, President Donald Trump had said the new ballroom "won't interfere with the current building", wouldn't be "touching it", and would pay "total respect to the existing building, which I'm the biggest fan of." A year later (2026), at a press conference, he said the White House had been "a shit house" in disrepair but, due to his improvements, was "tippy top now.

(Regardless of what happens to the ballroom, it will pale in comparison to what happened when Truman was in office.

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2026/05/bulldozers-at-white-house.html

The demolition of the East Wing began on October 20, without review by the National Capital Planning Commission, which oversees federal construction. On October 21, with unannounced demolition already underway, the National Trust for Historic Preservation objected that a 90,000-square-foot (8,400 m²) ballroom would "overwhelm" the 55,000-square-foot (5,100 m²) White House and "permanently disrupt the carefully balanced classical design of the White House with its two smaller, and lower, East and West Wings."

The White House curator and her staff removed, catalogued, and stored the East Wing's art and furnishings and worked with the White House Historical Association to document the demolition and to use 3D scanning technology to capture the East Wing in detail prior to the demolition

 On October 22, a White House official told NBC that the "entirety" of the East Wing would eventually be "modernized and rebuilt". The official claimed that the construction plan had never been firm: "The scope and the size of the ballroom project have always been expected to vary as the process develops."

Later that same day, Trump told reporters during an Oval Office event, "We determined that after really a tremendous amount of study with some of the best architects in the world, we determined that really knocking it down, trying to use a little section, you know, the East Wing was not much. It was not much left from the original". "In order to do it properly, we had to take down the existing structure."

The next day, on October 23, photos from the Associated Press showed that the entire East Wing, including the East Colonnade and the White House Family Theater, had been demolished.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-ballroom-court-ruling-1528247275ec6103da892d271d4ee883

On August 7, a divided federal appeals court ruled Friday that President Donald Trump’s administration must stop construction of the $400 million White House ballroom because Congress has not approved the project, a decision he blasted as “unjust” while vowing to appeal it to the nation’s highest court.

Trump doesn’t have the unilateral authority to build a 90,000-square-foot (8,400-square-meter) ballroom where the White House’s East Wing stood before he ordered its demolition last fall, according to the decision by a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The Republican president said on social media that the administration will immediately appeal what he called an “unjust decision” to the U.S. Supreme Court.

On August 14, the Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to allow construction of President Donald Trump's White House ballroom to continue after a lower court put it on pause.

The administration on Friday asked the high court for an emergency stay of the injunction, which would halt substantial portions of the above-ground construction of the White House East Wing and ballroom while litigation plays out over its legality.

The injunction is set to take effect on Aug. 21 unless the Supreme Court acts.

The district court order would still allow below-ground construction or any other measures necessary to protect national security and the president's safety.

Solicitor General John Sauer called the injunction "extraordinary and unlawful," arguing that it would put the security of the president and his family at risk and override the advice of the nation's top military, intelligence and law enforcement officials. 

If you’ve been paying attention, you may remember that FDR had an underground bunker built in 1942, so additional security should not be needed.

In the addition, the events of 9/11 prove that the last place the president should be is at the White House, which would be a tempting target for adversaries.

Although the Supreme Court has made a lot of bad decisions in recent years, we can only hope that the court will tell Trump to permanently stop his latest ego project.

The tallest structure on Washington D.C. is the Washington monument, which is 555 feet tall.  The Heights of Buildings Act of 1910 limits typical D.C. commercial buildings to a maximum of 130 feet (plus exceptions for wide streets) to keep the skyline low. Building a 250-foot arch would be a clear violation of the intent of that act.

Remember that $200 million budget for Trump’s ballroom?

The latest estimate has now risen to nearly $900 million dollars.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2026/08/12/trump-administration-set-spend-least-900-million-white-house-construction/

 

None of us know how the Supreme court will rule on Trump’s ballroom.

Even if the monstrosity gets approved, it is critical that it cannot be larger than 55,000 square feet, since that would make it larger than “the people’s house” – and that would not be a good thing.