US President Donald Trump has shared his plans for a billion-dollar ballroom which has left some thinking he does not plan on leaving the White House.
The US leader on Tuesday, May 19, showed members of the media the progress on the lavish ballroom. He shared that “the ballroom is really a shield and protecting all of the things that are built here.”
Trump said the construction includes a military hospital and meeting rooms. The structure will be about six storeys below the ground.
“Its all knit together. Between the drone proofing, the missile proofing and the drone capacity… it also has great snipper capacity,” he said.
View 3 ImagesTrump said a military hospital and research facilities will be built on the site of his planned White House ballroom(Image: Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Trump’s construction has lead some to believe he is not planning to leave office.
Democratic Strategist Michelle Kinney wrote in a post on X: “It’s not a ballroom. It’s a bunker. He’s not leaving.”
A second X user wrote: “I’m starting to become convinced that Trump’s monomaniacal obsession with the ballroom/bunker is because he plans on barricading himself inside the bunker when his term is up.”
Another posted: “Trump is turning the White House into Mar-a-Lago 2.0 and he has no intention of ever leaving. It’s why Republicans are trying so hard to stop our votes.”
A fourth said: “Trump thinks he’s never leaving. He’s planning a bunker on U.S. tax payer money.”
The US leader has said the ballroom is completely donor-funded.
Trump’s White House ballroom project hit a snag just days earlier after a Senate parliamentarian ruled that Republicans could not include a provision in a bill that would move $1 billion in tax payer money toward security upgrades for the project.
View 3 ImagesTrump provided more details about controversial project(Image: Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The funding proposal was added by Senate Republicans to a $72 billion budget bill for the Department of Homeland Security after GOP officials said the Secret Service requested them.
Had the provision stood, it would need only a simple majority to pass.
Article continues below
But Elizabeth MacDonough, the nonpartisan parliamentarian, found the funding proposal broke budget reconciliation rules and needed to be revised or reach a 60-vote threshold.
Republicans said they are working on revising their proposal.