For Years Trump Has Been Furious the White House Doesn’t Have a $50 Million Ballroom (Video)

‘I Offered for Nothing to Build a $50 Million Ballroom’ in the White House, Trump Said

The White House is denying a report in GOLF magazine that President Donald Trump told paying members at his Bedminster golf club, “That White House is a real dump.” The President late Wednesday also denied it, calling GOLF magazine “Fake News.”

“I love the White House, one of the most beautiful buildings (homes) I have ever seen. But Fake News said I called it a dump – TOTALLY UNTRUE,” Trump tweeted.

Over the past few years, at least a dozen times, Trump has lauded GOLF magazine, in tweets like this:

But the real story here isn’t GOLF magazine, it’s that Donald Trump hates the White House, and has a long history of attacking it.

(By the way, the photo above is of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago ballroom.)

CNN’s Keith Boykin dug up this 2011 clip of Trump telling CNBC “the problem with the country” is the White House doesn’t have a $50 million ballroom:

Trump went ballistic on the business news network’s “Squawk Box” show, because in 2009 President Barack Obama had held a state dinner for the head off India in a tent on the White House lawn. The tent was no ordinary tent, it was described by VANITY FAIR as a “a massive pavillion,” cost $85,000 to create, and took six days to construct.

“I called the White House and I said, ‘Listen, you’re no jokers, you’ve seen it: I have a ballroom in Palm Beach Florida that’s magnificent.’ I offered for nothing to build a $50 million ballroom,” Trump told the CNBC hosts. 

“Because I said, ‘You know what, when a foreign leader comes over, not the leader from China, but friends of ours, they shouldn’t be in a tent. They should be in a ballroom.’ So I called the White House, spoke to a very high official, like, one of the highest, and said, ‘Listen, I will build free a $40, $50, $60 million, whatever it cost, ballroom for the White House. It should have a ballroom, not a tent. 

“I never heard from them. This is the problem with the country.”

That was far from the first or last time Trump was furious about the White House.

“Trump elaborated on his horror of tents in his 2011 book, Time to Get Tough, writing ‘That’s no way for America to host important meetings and dinners with world leaders and dignitaries. We should project our nation’s power and beauty with a proper facility and ballroom,'” EATER reported just days after the election.

During the presidential campaign, Trump bashed the White House in his speeches to supporters. One example:

“In his final speech before Iowa caucus day, Donald Trump renewed his old promise to build a lavish White House ballroom and pay for it himself,” TIME magazine reported in January of 2016.

“Every time the top people come over from China … they put up a tent at the White House,” he said, during his final event Sunday in Sioux City, Iowa. “We’ll have a ballroom at the White House.”

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Trump said he once called David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to President Obama, offering to build a ballroom worth “at least $100 million” for free. “We’ll put it someplace so it works contextually, magnificently,” Trump said of his construction offer. “I never heard back.”

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest mocked the presidential candidate the following day.

“The White House confirmed Monday that Donald Trump had offered to spend $100 million on a new White House ballroom, but said the offer was quickly rejected,” USA TODAY reported.

“I’m (not) sure it would be appropriate to have a shiny gold ‘Trump’ sign on any part of the White House,” Press Secretary Josh Earnest said. “That’s what most of the buildings that he offers to build include, so I’m unclear if something like that would have been required with this offer as well.”

But Trump’s disdain for the White House and its lack of a lavish ballroom did not end with his presidential campaign.

In December of last year, NEW YORK magazine reported President-elect “Donald Trump Wants to Add a Ballroom to the White House. Where Will It Go?”

While the tone of the article was more speculative than anything else, given his prior statements, it’s safe to say Trump still thinks the White House is a “real dump.”

Image by sergio_leenen via Flickr