President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom is unpopular with voters, but despite their opposition, Trump has mentioned it more than supposed policy priorities like health care, cheaper prescription drugs and affordability.
“Trump has invoked the ballroom on about a third of the days this year, according to a Washington Post analysis of his public remarks and social media posts, a pace that rivals and even exceeds his mentions of some major policy priorities,” wrote Clara Ence Morse and Dan Diamond on Monday. “He has mentioned the project on fewer days this year than topics such as tariffs and Iran but on about as many days as he has mentioned health insurance and ‘affordability.’”
They added that Trump has mentioned the ballroom “significantly” more often than his TrumpRx website, “which his administration introduced to help Americans shop for cheaper prescription drugs.”
Morse and Diamond add that Trump has paid more attention to public statements about the ballroom as 2026 has dragged on, particularly as various legal challenges have impeded its progress.
“In April, for instance, the president has issued more posts about the ballroom on his Truth Social platform than about tariffs — Trump’s signature economic policy,” Morse and Diamond explained. “On Thursday, the president took to Truth Social to complain about the federal judge who ordered a stop to the project until Trump receives congressional authorization, complain again about the judge, complain about the plaintiff, and then complain about the judge one more time — yielding nearly 800 words of invective, all told. Then, within minutes, Trump shared all four posts again.”
While one might assume that a politician would lean into an issue like the White House ballroom because it redounds to their political credit, The Washington Post noted that this is hardly the case here.
“The project is broadly unpopular,” Morse and Diamond explained. “Fifty-eight percent of Americans said they opposed tearing down the East Wing to build the ballroom, according to an Economist-YouGov poll in February. Trump’s political advisers have encouraged him to focus on topics such as lowering the cost of health care ahead of this year’s midterms.”
Indeed, when the White House compiled a 9,000-page book of public comments about the ballroom, they were almost unanimously negative. The complaints included "complete DISASTER,” an “eyesore,” an “abomination,” "NO GAUDY FAKE GOLD STUFF ALL OVER THE PLACE,” “no one wants to be in an adjunct building in a large crowd with lengthened security protocols” and “appalling.”
When denying the White House’s desire to build the ballroom, Judge Richard Leon (who was appointed by Trump’s fellow Republican president, George W. Bush) declared that “the President of the United States is the steward of the White House for future generations of First Families. He is not, however, the owner!” Rejecting Trump’s claim to preexisting authority to destroy parts of the White House, Leon sided with the National Trust for Historic Preservation that there is almost certainly “no statute comes close to giving the President the authority he claims to have. As such, I must therefore GRANT the National Trust's Motion for a Preliminary Injunction, and the ballroom construction project must stop until Congress authorizes its completion.”
Leon added, “unless and until Congress blesses this project through statutory authorization, construction has to stop!"
The ballroom is being constructed over the ruins of the White House East Wing, which Trump destroyed without permission. The Republican also announced he would rip out the Thomas Jefferson-installed Tennessee Flagstone pavers with black granite.