The entire White House East Wing, a two-story structure that once housed offices and workspaces for first ladies and their staffs, was reduced to a pile of rubble by Thursday as President Donald Trump's plans for a newly constructed state ballroom move forward.
President Trump said the 90,000-square-foot ballroom will now cost $300 million to construct, having previously said $200 million, but claimed it would be at no cost to taxpayers.
"I am honored to be the first President to finally get this much-needed project underway — with zero cost to the American Taxpayer! The White House Ballroom is being privately funded by many generous Patriots, Great American Companies, and, yours truly. This Ballroom will be happily used for Generations to come!" he previously wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Scripps News has obtained a list of the donors behind President Trump's ballroom from a White House official:
- Adelson Family Foundation
- Altria Group Inc.
- Amazon
- Apple
- Benjamin Leon Jr.
- Betty Wold Johnson Foundation
- Booz Allen Hamilton Inc.
- Cameron Winklevoss
- Caterpillar Inc.
- Charles and Marissa Cascarilla
- Coinbase
- Comcast Corporation
- Edward and Shari Glazer
- Hard Rock International
- Harold Hamm
- HP Inc.
- J. Pepe and Emilia Fanjul
- Kelly Loeffler and Jeff Sprecher
- Konstantin Sokolov
- Lockheed Martin
- Meta Platforms
- Micron Technology
- Microsoft
- NextEra Energy Inc.
- Palantir Technologies Inc.
- Paolo Tiramani
- Reynolds American
- Ripple
- Stefan E. Brodie
- Stephen A. Schwarzmann
- T-Mobile
- Tether America
- The Laura & Isaac Perlmutter Foundation
- The Lutnick Family
- Tyler Winklevoss
- Union Pacific Railroad
Demolition of the East Wing began earlier this week, even though the project does not have approval from the federal agency that typically oversees similar projects.
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While the ballroom marks the largest construction project at the Executive Mansion in over half a century, it's not the first time the White House has been renovated over the years.
In 2009, under President Barack Obama, a tennis court on the South Lawn of the White House was converted to a basketball court. Previously, President Bill Clinton in 1993 also refurbished the Oval Office and other executive suites, First Lady Nancy Reagan in 1981 renovated private living quarters, and in 1979 President Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the roof of the White House to encourage clean energy.
According to the renderings presented by the administration, the ballroom will be nearly twice the size of the White House when it is completed.
Scripps News has reached out to several of the companies listed for a response on the ongoing construction and is waiting to hear back.
So far, Meta has declined to comment.
