Work continues on the construction of the ballroom at the White House, Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in Washington, where the East Wing once stood.
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President Donald Trump is defending the White House ballroom he's building. He showed off the construction site to a group of reporters on Tuesday. The surprise visit comes days after the Senate parliamentarian said a proposal to pay for $1 billion in security additions to the White House campus could not be included in a bill currently before Congress. Raising his voice over the banging and clanging of loud construction equipment, Trump described the ballroom's security features, repeated that taxpayer money isn't paying to build it and called it a "gift to the United States of America.”
