President Donald Trump is pushing back against former First Lady Michelle Obama’s criticism of his plan to replace the White House East Wing with a new state-of-the-art ballroom — a project he says will elevate the presidential residence to “one of the greatest” in the world.
According to Fox News, during an interview on Monday with Laura Ingraham, Trump defended the controversial redesign, which is being funded entirely by private donors. “The East Wing is being spent by private donors. It’s a $250, $300 million building. It’s going to be the most beautiful anywhere in the world,” he said.
Trump argued that the new addition was long overdue, claiming the current space was woefully inadequate for major state functions. “They had an event [at the White House] the other day. With tables, they could hold 79 people,” he said. “Now, if you have President Xi from China, or if you have some big state event, we have no place to have it. You know what they did? … They will put a tent on the lawn. It was a low section because that’s the only section you have… If it rained, you were sitting in six inches of water. It was a disaster.”
The project has drawn sharp criticism from Democrats, including Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), and former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. But it was Michelle Obama’s pointed remarks that drew Trump’s response.
“When we talk about the East Wing, it is the heart of the work [of a first lady],” Obama told Vanity Fair. “And to denigrate it, to tear it down, to pretend like it doesn’t matter, it’s a reflection of how you think of that role.”
During a separate NBC interview, she added, “There’s no guidebook. There’s barely a staff. Now we don’t have a building.”
Trump dismissed the backlash as misplaced nostalgia, arguing that the East Wing’s historic character had already been compromised.
“That building was renovated 20 times, including adding a floor to the top, which was terrible,” he said. “It looked like hell. It had nothing to do with the original building, and I didn’t want to sacrifice a great ballroom for an okay ballroom by leaving it right smack in the middle.”
The 90,000-square-foot expansion will mark the first formal ballroom in White House history and will follow the mansion’s classical design. Trump insisted the change would preserve the legacy of the White House — while modernizing it for the global stage.
