Notwithstanding the millions of Americans who turned out for the No Kings protests last weekend, we clearly have a king in residence at the building formerly known as the White House. Going forward, it shall be known as The Palace.
Trump’s ballroom is a gilded warehouse
President Trump’s crown envy inspires his White House makeover.
October 24, 2025
Suffice to say, we never should have let Trump go to Riyadh, where Trump was treated like royalty.
My hunch is he began conjuring images of his own ballroom during his 2017 visit with King Salman to secure a multibillion-dollar arms deal with Saudi Arabia. The king’s palaces are decked out with opulent chandeliers, gold-trimmed walls and marble floors, featuring parlors and throne rooms large enough to seat hundreds. I was witness to these jaw-dropping structures while traveling in 2007 with then-first lady Laura Bush.
Trump’s ballroom, where he says he’ll host up to 999 people for state dinners and royal visits, will feature similar appointments. The president has never met a lily he didn’t want to gild, as his personal touches to the Oval Office confirm.
Construction of the $300 million, 90,000-square-foot ballroom, which is being underwritten by donors, has caused a stir like no other. Trump’s earlier statement that the new structure wouldn’t interfere with the existing people’s house was a diamond-studded prevarication. As most have seen by now, the East Wing has been completely demolished.
“It was never thought of as being much,” His Majesty said of the wing that housed the first lady’s office and otherwise was used for ceremonial events. “It was a very small building.”
As you know, Trump detests all things small. But then, Trump didn’t get to see Mick Jagger and B.B. King perform in the East Wing, where only 200 people could be seated. That sort of intimacy is gone forever. In 2012, I was a lucky attendee at the Red, White and Blues concert hosted by President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama. Seated directly behind the Obamas, I’d guess the performers were maybe 10 feet away. If the president hadn’t been blocking me, I might have felt Jagger’s sweat as he slithered and strutted across the room beneath a life-size portrait of George Washington.
Those were the days, my friends. Nothing like it has happened in the White House since Trump moved in. Meanwhile, it’s Day 24 of the shutdown and counting. The Senate blocked bills Thursday to lock in back pay for federal workers. While our soldiers worry about their paychecks, you’d think the commander in chief might delay construction of his grandiose party house.
That no public funds are being spent on the ballroom is cold comfort when you’re asked to serve without pay, otherwise known as indentured servitude. The optics of destroying part of the White House seem even more ill-considered. Obviously, billionaires with billionaire friends aren’t burdened by normal people’s hesitations.
All gnashing of teeth and rending of garments aside, I find myself not as freaked out about the White House makeover as some readers who are urging me to say something. This is just one more assault on the American psyche. One wearies. This is as Trump would have it. Throw everything at the people until they can no longer muster outrage. Each objectionable action — from invading and militarizing cities to dropping bombs on small boats — merges with all the others into one prolonged scream that no one can hear.
So, we’re going to have a gilded warehouse on the White House lawn that only a Trump could love, with no vestige left of the relatively quaint East Wing where history was made for more than 100 years.
Trump has never stopped being Trump, and we’ve long been aware of how he has viewed the White House. He wants an official setting worthy of kings and sheikhs and, of course, his royal self. If others have found the White House lacking in grandeur, they may also have seen it as elegantly understated. We’re the United States of America, after all, and we don’t do ostentation in the people’s house. Showing off isn’t who we are — or were.
Once upon a time, humility was, in fact, a cherished national virtue and the striving for biggest and best was understood to be a nouveau riche aspiration. Call me a WASP, sure, but there’s much to be said for how Warren Buffett chooses to live a modest lifestyle compared with say, oh, nobody in particular.
It’s too bad the ballroom won’t be ready in time for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s November visit. Maybe he’ll make a contribution in keeping with his $2 billion donation to Jared Kushner’s equity firm. I’m guessing King Trump, who accepted a $400 million luxury jet from Qatar, probably wouldn’t object.