US President Donald Trump came up with the strange idea of having a grand ballroom in the White House. On Wednesday, Trump stepped up to the East Room podium to sign an executive order seeking to bar transgender women and girls from participating in women's sports. It was during this crucial moment that Donald Trump dropped his idea of ballroom.
“This room is packed,” USA Today quoted Donald Trump as saying. He added, “You know, I’d offered to build a ballroom right here,” he said. “A beautiful, beautiful ballroom.”
According to the White House Historical Association, the East Room was designed by James Hoban and George Washington to serve as a "Public Audience Room.” Spanning 3,000 square feet, the East Room boasts as the biggest of the State Rooms. It is the only room that runs through the entire width of the executive mansion.
Dances, receptions, concerts and press conferences typically take place in the East Room. Suggesting the idea of revamping the East Room, the 47th US president said, “This was gonna be the reception room." According to Trump, East Room that would have served as the entrance to the ballroom.
$100 million ballroom offer
Asserting that he made the offer about White House' ballroom proposal to the Biden Administration, he said, "I offered to do it,” adding, “And I never heard back.” Donald Trump had planned to construct a ballroom in the White house similar to the one at Florida mansion, Mar-a-Lago, for $100 million.
Joe Biden was not the only president Donald Trump approached with his peculiar idea. During Barack Obama's tenure, Trump had offered to spend $100 million in 2016 for the construction of a new White House ballroom. However, the idea got rejected.
Following Trump's return to White House for the second term, it seems that the US president is going to fulfil his dream as he said, “I'm going to try and make the offer to myself, you know... Because we could use a bigger room, right.”
White House events in tents
As the custom goes, tented state dinners have been held outdoors on the White House grounds for decades. However, Donald Trump had expressed his dislike towards this state of affairs back in 2016 and said that was an inappropriate way to entertain foreign dignitaries in tents.
