U.S. President Donald Trump and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speak during a tour in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 24, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura
President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that his ballroom project will not cost $1 billion, which Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) allocated in the budget proposal he announced this week. Still, the cost overruns have doubled what Trump initially promised. It's prompting a lot of comparisons to Trump's criticisms of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and the renovations of the hundred-year-old central bank headquarters and complex.
In the post, Trump said he had doubled the size of the project, which was initially set to cost only $200 million in donated funds.
"The White House Ballroom is going up rapidly on the East side of the White House. The only reason the cost has changed is because, after deep rooted studies, it is approximately twice the size, and a far higher quality, than the original proposal, which would not have been adequate to handle the necessary events, meetings and even future Inaugurations," Trump said.
He then revealed that he'd doubled the project.
"The original price was 200 Million Dollars, the double sized, highest quality completed project will be something less than 400 Million Dollars. It will be magnificent, safe and secure!" continued Trump. "This was a necessary change it was done long ago, but the Fake News failed to report it, trying to make it look like there was a cost overrun. Actually, it is coming in ahead of schedule and under budget! Thank you for your attention to this matter."
It prompted MS NOW congressional reporter Matt Fuller to comment, "Old enough to remember Trump’s DOJ indicting Jerome Powell over cost overruns for two Federal Reserve renovations."
The same observation was made by conservative Jonah Goldberg, who called it "weird" that just last week, the charges against Powell were dropped. But up until that point, they were accusing him of doing something illegal related to the cost overruns.
CNN host Audie Cornish recalled that in that case the overruns were approximately 30 percent. Trump is saying that his are 50 percent.
"Well, also the cost to the taxpayer has gone from 0 to $1 billion," Goldberg added. "To me, this is like a small domestic metaphor or analog for the Iran War. Trump did it unilaterally as an ego thing. He didn't want any buy-in from Congress. He didn't want to make the argument for it. He just did it over the weekend. And then all of a sudden, when it gets complicated and difficult, he wants Congress to bail him out. He wants the taxpayers to bail him out. And he grounds the arguments for doing it in all of these pretextual things about national security that weren't part of."
Trump allies decided that the ballroom was necessary after a gunman showed up at the White House Correspondents' dinner. The structure was already set to ensure security standards were met, but the price went from $400 million to $1 billion, with taxpayers footing the bill. It sparked outrage.
