U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a Diwali celebration in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., October 21, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
President Donald Trump has justified his project of tearing down part of the White House to build a massive new event space by promising no tax dollars would be spent, and that it would be entirely funded by private donors — until recently.
The Daily Beast reported Tuesday that Trump said during a recent Oval Office press gaggle that the $230 million payout the president is seeking in compensation from the Department of Justice for his two federal prosecutions could be what provides the bulk of the funding for his proposed 90,000 square-foot ballroom. However, as former Trump campaign advisor David Urban said on CNN, that money would come from U.S. taxpayers.
"They probably owe me a lot of money, but if I get money from our country, I’ll probably do something nice with it, like give it to charity or give it to the White House while we restore the White House," Trump told reporters on Tuesday.
"As you know, the ballroom is under construction," he continued. "They’ve been trying to get it for 150 years, and I think it’s going to be fantastic. But we’ll see what happens."
Even though the DOJ is a part of the executive branch, Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution expressly gives Congress the power of the purse, meaning if the DOJ were to pay Trump hundreds of millions of dollars it would likely have to first be appropriated by Congress. There is currently no legislation that has been filed allowing for the DOJ to give $230 million to the president.
The New York Times reported that Trump made two claims prior to his reelection last year claiming that his rights were violated. The first claim, from 2023, references the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. His second claim referred to the 2022 FBI raid at his Mar-a-Lago estate in which investigators discovered boxes of classified documents stored haphazardly and accessible to Mar-a-Lago members.
Despite the ongoing government shutdown, Trump has moved forward with demolition of the East Wing of the White House (which houses the First Lady's office) to make way for his ballroom. The demolition is also moving forward despite any modifications to historic government buildings typically having to go through the National Park Service.
Click here to read the Beast's full article (subscription required).