New renderings of President Donald Trump’s $200 million dream ballroom have provided new insight into what will soon occupy 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
The ballroom, now expected to be nearly 125,000 square feet, will be significantly larger than the White House itself. The latest mock-ups, obtained by CBS News, show just how much the structure will tower over the 233-year-old executive mansion.
The ballroom, a Palladian structure, appears to have an entrance with stairs facing south, toward The Ellipse and the Washington Monument. At the top of the stairs are six Corinthian-style columns.
Inside, renderings depict a lavish ballroom featuring neoclassical architectural elements, including large arched windows, ornate chandeliers, a coffered ceiling, and, in true Trump fashion, numerous gold accents.
McCrery Architects PLLC, the firm behind the project, produced the renderings that CBS obtained. Trump said last week that the project will cost $200 million, but will not use any tax dollars or money from foreign donors.
A White House official told the Daily Beast last week that the administration has already received nearly $200 million in pledges for the ballroom, which Trump promises to cover out of pocket if needed.
CBS News reported that pledges are coming from corporations and wealthy donors, including Google, Booz Allen Hamilton, R.J. Reynolds, Palantir, and NextEra Energy. Lockheed Martin is said to have contributed $10 million to the project. They each may be rewarded by having their names etched into the White House.
Construction on the project began earlier this month and is expected to take approximately four years to complete, according to experts. However, the White House has said the ballroom would be functional “long before the end of President Trump’s term” in January 2029.
The project will mark Trump’s most visible change to the White House since he returned to office in January. Next to the ballroom, once complete, will be an American flag on a large flagpole—an installation the president had put up in June.
Inside the historic building, Trump has remade the White House—particularly the Oval Office—in his own image.
His office has been adorned with a dazzling array of gold trinkets, moldings, and intricate designs on the room’s doors, bookcases, and above its fireplace. It even features golden cherubs and the golden Club World Cup trophy he insisted on keeping, forcing FIFA to send its rightful winner, Chelsea FC, a replica.
Trump, 79, has also paved over a large swath of the historic Rose Garden to create a presidential patio, complete with tacky bright yellow umbrellas shipped north from Mar-a-Lago.
Nearby, an oft-photographed area of the White House has been transformed into a colonnade filled with gold-framed images of all of America’s past presidents, except Joe Biden. Instead, the space where Trump’s predecessor should be displayed on the “presidential walk of fame” is a photo of Biden’s “autopen.”
Elsewhere in the building, Trump has replaced presidential portraits with more of his own. This includes him removing a portrait of Barack Obama that once sat in the White House entrance and replacing it with a painting of his iconic “Fight! Fight! Fight!” image from the day he was nearly gunned down in Pennsylvania in 2024.
