CNN: Trump personally selects materials for new White House ballroom

President of the United States Donald Trump personally selects materials for the new White House ballroom, advancing controversial efforts to replace the East Wing. This was reported by the channel CNN citing an unnamed source familiar with the matter.

On Friday, in Florida, he inspected stone samples. Before visiting the Trump International Golf Club, the US President stopped by Arc Stone & Tile, a stone importer near Mar-a-Lago that positions itself as a specialist in Italian marble, where, according to a White House official, he planned to purchase marble and onyx.

The purchase, which, according to the source, will be made at Trump's own expense, is the latest evidence of his active involvement in a project that will radically change the appearance of the White House and leave an unforgettable mark on the country's most famous address.

The future ballroom, which will span more than 8,000 square meters and has grown significantly in size and cost since Trump first announced it last summer, has also drawn the administration into a protracted legal battle.

Initially, Trump estimated the construction would cost $200 million and promised it would not affect the existing structure of the White House. However, a few months later, he decided to bulldoze the entire east wing without prior notice, making way for an expanded ballroom that he estimated would cost up to $400 million in personal expenses and private donations.

The article states that since returning to the presidency, Trump has overseen a number of large-scale changes in the White House, including paving the Rose Garden, redoing the Palm Room, and updating the interior of the Oval Office. He often favored expensive white marble and gold accents, emulating the style of his Mar-a-Lago club, where he spent the last two weeks for the holidays.

But the ballroom is certainly Trump's biggest and most revolutionary project to date, journalists noted. The project still needs approval from two commissions.

The administration is now seeking to quickly obtain official approvals, setting a schedule that would allow construction of the ballroom to begin this spring and be completed by mid-2028, before the end of Trump's term.

These are tighter deadlines compared to previous White House projects, which took several years to begin construction. For example, the planning for the construction of a new perimeter fence on the White House grounds, which began in 2014, was only officially approved three years later. Construction then only began in 2019.

But Trump, who regularly held meetings at the White House to discuss minute details of the project and insisted on personally selecting materials, sought to remove procedural obstacles. He appointed Will Scharf, the White House chief of staff, to head the National Capital Planning Commission and bypassed initial reviews that are usually conducted before any work begins.

Meanwhile, the US president enthusiastically shared progress and asked allies and foreign leaders about the projects, showing visualizations that envision a huge golden-white ballroom that could eventually overshadow the rest of the White House.

"I'm creating a wonderful, big, beautiful ballroom that the country has wanted, the White House has wanted for 150 years. It's a tremendous job," Trump told the Israeli prime minister. Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting in late December.

• In October, Trump announced that in the eastern wing, construction of the ballroom at the White House began. At that time, the cost was estimated at $200 million.