Watch: Trump hosts a dinner for donors to a $250 million White House ballroom project

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday welcomed nearly 130 wealthy donors, allies and representatives of major corporations to dinner at the White House to reward them for their pledged contributions in a massive new ballroom.

Watch Trump’s remarks in the video player above.

The hall, whose cost is now estimated at $250 million, is the most important renovation undertaken by Trump, the former real estate mogul, during his second term in the White House.

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All four sides of the hall — which Trump said would be large and large enough to hold a presidential inauguration — will be made of bulletproof glass, with its color and the shape of the windows and moldings in keeping with the character of the White House. Trump indicated that fundraising and managing the “tremendous” hall costs are going well, and he expects to have money remaining after the project is completed.

“For me, there’s no such thing as the White House,” Trump said, later adding: “It’s just a special place so we have to take care of it.”

Men in business suits and women in cocktail attire sat at a dozen round tables, decorated with tall, pointed candles and white flowers, and sipped wine and water as they waited for dinner to be served on gold-decorated plates. Later, they dined on heirloom tomato panzanella salad, beef Wellington, and a dessert of roasted Anjou pears, cinnamon crumbs, and butterscotch ice cream.

Among the companies that had representatives at the dinner, according to a White House official, were Amazon, Apple, Booz Allen Hamilton, Coinbase, Comcast, Google, Lockheed Martin, Meta Platforms and T-Mobile. The Adelson Family Foundation, founded by GOP megadonors Miriam Adelson and her late husband Sheldon, also had a presence there.

Oil billionaire Harold Hamm, Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman, Small Business Administration Chairman Kelly Loeffler and her husband Jeff Sprecher, and cryptocurrency entrepreneurs Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss were all on the guest list. The attendance list was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Also attending the dinner were Chris Lacivita, Trump’s co-campaign manager from his 2024 re-election bid; Reince Priebus, White House chief of staff during Trump’s first term; and Jason Miller, another longtime political consultant.

The new ballroom is planned in the area where the East Wing is located and will be 90,000 square feet. The White House had previously said it would accommodate 650 people, but Trump said on Wednesday evening that it would be able to accommodate up to 999 people.

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The auditorium project has not yet received approvals from the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission on Fine Arts, although White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf, who was also appointed by Trump to lead the Planning Commission, says approval is not required. The committee examines the construction of federal buildings.

During the dinner, Trump said there were no zoning requirements for him as president of the United States, and he could do whatever he wanted with the construction process.

The president has repeatedly complained that large events at the White House require building a tent on the South Lawn, as the East Room – currently the largest space in the White House – can only accommodate about 200 people.

During the dinner, Trump officially unveiled another project: an arch that will stand on one end of the Arlington Memorial Bridge, which crosses the Potomac River and connects Virginia and the District of Columbia. He showed off several scale models of the proposed arch — which would feature Lady Liberty at the top — in three sizes, though Trump admitted the largest was his favorite.

“It’s going to be really beautiful,” Trump said.

Associated Press writer Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.