Fact-checking Democrats’ claim that the White House said the dance floor was Trump’s top priority

This article originally appeared on PolitiFact.

As photos of the destroyed East Wing of the White House made national news, top Democrats shared a video of White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt appearing to say building the new ballroom is President Donald Trump’s top priority.

Read more: The East Wing of the White House was demolished. Here’s a look at its history

“At this moment in time, of course, the ballroom is the president’s main priority,” Leavitt said in a five-second clip shared by top Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., on Channel X.

An October 23 Jefferies post denounced Levitt’s comment: “The Trump administration just announced that creating a ballroom is the president’s main priority. Meanwhile. The cost of living is sky-high and the Republican health care crisis threatens millions of Americans.”

Sharing the same clip, the House Democratic Caucus wrote on Oct. 23 on Channel

The Democratic National Committee’s

The clip of Leavitt’s statement is real, but Jeffries and the House Democratic Caucus clipped her comments in a misleading way that removes context: Leavitt never said that the ballroom was a more important priority for the president than inflation, health care, or ending the federal government shutdown.

As one wing of the iconic white building lay in ruins nearby, reporters at a White House news conference on October 23 asked Levitt about the project.

In the clip shared by Democrats, Levitt was responding to a question about Trump’s priorities in building the White House, and not about all policies.

Here’s the question that prompted Levitt to answer, and her answer:

Reporter: In addition to the ballroom and the Rose Garden courtyard, is the President looking forward to any other renovations or important types of projects here at the White House?

Levitt: Not to my knowledge, no, but he is a builder at heart, obviously. Therefore, his heart and mind are always in turmoil about how to improve things here on the White House grounds. But at this moment in time, the ballroom is the president’s main priority.

We contacted Jeffries’ office and the Democratic Caucus on October 23 and 24 and received no responses. As of the date of publication, X posts by Jeffries and the caucus remained on the X platform.

When we contacted the White House, the press office referred us to an October 23 X post by an official White House account, Rapid Response 47.

This post reshared an Oct. 23 post by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., that was similar to Jeffries’ post. Rapid Response 47 said Leavitt was “answering a question specifically related to construction projects on the White House grounds.” Rapid Response Post 47 also included the text of the question directed to Levitt and her answer.

Schumer’s post reshared a post by Acyn, an account that shares raw videos about politics and is affiliated with the liberal media company MeidasTouch. The video shared by Acyn included the reporter’s full question and Leavitt’s full answer, but it summarized the conversation in a misleading way, with a caption saying: “Levitt: At this moment, the dance floor is really the president’s main priority.”

Our rule

“The Trump administration has just declared that creating a ballroom is the president’s main priority,” not issues like the cost of living and health care, Jeffries wrote.

This distorts Levitt’s words. She was asked about Trump’s top priorities regarding renovating parts of the White House campus. In this context, she said that the top priority is the dance floor, not that the dance floor is Trump’s top priority among every policy.

We rate the statement false.