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CNN
a minute ago
- CNN
Construction on Trump's $200 million White House ballroom to begin in September
Donald TrumpFacebookTweetLink Follow President Donald Trump has been envisioning a new ballroom on the White House campus for a decade and a half. His dream is about to become a reality. Construction will begin next month on a $200 million, 90,000-square-foot ballroom, his press secretary announced Thursday, fulfilling a 15-year ambition by the president to construct an event space on the White House grounds that expands the building's entertaining capacity — but also resembles the gilded spaces of his private clubs. Renderings provided by the White House depict a vast space with gold and crystal chandeliers, gilded Corinthian columns, a coffered ceiling with gold inlays, gold floor lamps and a checkered marble floor. Three walls of arched windows look out over the White House's south grounds — including a massive new flagpole that was another of Trump's additions to the historic compound. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the new 'state ballroom' would occupy space currently housing the East Wing of the executive mansion, where first ladies have traditionally maintained offices. Staff working from the location now will be 'temporarily relocated.' The renderings show the exterior of the ballroom jutting onto the South Lawn, with a colonnade running along one wall. A Palladian facade with columns and a pediment sits on the eastern wall. The gold-and-white style closely mimics the Louis XIV-style main event room at Mar-a-Lago, Trump's estate in Palm Beach. Trump has not shied away from drawing inspiration from his clubs. 'No president knew how to build a ballroom,' Trump said this weekend, meeting the European Commission president in another of his crystal-draped ballrooms, this one at his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland. 'I could take this one, drop it right down there, and it would be beautiful.' The new ballroom — which will maintain the 'theme and architectural heritage' of the neoclassical executive mansion, the White House said — will have a seated capacity of 650 people, more than three times the space in the East Room, currently the largest event space in the White House. 'President Trump is a builder at heart and has an extraordinary eye for detail,' White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said in a statement. 'The President and the Trump White House are fully committed to working with the appropriate organizations to preserving the special history of the White House while building a beautiful ballroom that can be enjoyed by future Administrations and generations of Americans to come.' Leavitt characterized the new construction — which she said will be funded by Trump and other private donors — as a necessary addition after previous White Houses were forced to host major events in a temporary tent constructed on the South Lawn, which she called 'unsightly.' 'For 150 years, presidents, administrations and White House staff have longed for a large event space on the White House complex that can hold substantially more guests than currently allowed,' she said. 'President Trump has expressed his commitment to solving this problem on behalf of future administrations and the American people.' Trump, she said, had convened meetings recently with officials from the National Park Service, the White House Military Office and the US Secret Service to 'discuss design features and planning.' An architect known for 'classical architectural design,' McCrery Architects, was selected to spearhead the project. 'I am honored that President Trump has entrusted me to help bring this beautiful and necessary renovation to The People's House, while preserving the elegance of its classical design and historical importance,' the firm's CEO Jim McCrery said in a statement. The vision of a new White House ballroom floated in Trump's mind dating back at least to 2010, when he called Barack Obama's White House offering to build one. His offer was rebuffed. 'It was going to cost about $100 million,' Trump said during his first term. 'I offered to do it, and I never heard back.'
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Jesse Watters has released the latest installment in his highly mockable list of masculine pointers.
Fox News host Jesse Watters has revealed his latest Trump-inspired 'rule' for men. Reacting to a clip of Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey losing his temper on the Senate floor this week as he raged at colleagues for being 'complicit' in the Trump administration's agenda, Watters quipped that Democrats are 'turning on each other like the Real Housewives' and displayed a graphic of Booker dressed as Spartacus. The host then dropped some sage wisdom on his audience in the form of another entry in his list of bizarre rules he expects 'real' men to follow.
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Commentary: Trump isn't 'winning' his trade wars
President Trump is on a winning streak, if you trust the news. The New York Times declared recently that "Trump is winning his trade wars." The Hill says he's on a "hot streak." The Associated Press claims "Trump is getting the economy he wants." All this stems from a flurry of trade deals Trump has negotiated leading up to his self-declared Aug. 1 deadline for trading partners to make deals or face his wrath. But this isn't winning. Trump is shackling the US economy and threatening his own political future. His tariffs will inevitably weaken the economy and rattle voters who are already losing faith in Trump's ability to safeguard their prosperity. Trump's supposed "wins" of late include trade deals with South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, and the European Union. Still in the works are deals with Canada, Mexico, and China, the top three US trading partners. Most of the deals announced so far lack specifics and may be more like frameworks for deals that will take months to hammer out. Wall Street likes them anyway. Under the newly minted deals, imports from those countries will face a tax to enter the United States, typically ranging from 15% to 20%. That's not as bad as the 25% tariff or more that some analysts feared. Trump is also reaching these deals without facing any retaliation, such as tariffs on US exports similar to Trump's tariffs on imports. US stocks have been rising on the news. Hooray! The average tax on imports is soaring from about 2.5% before Trump took office to around 18%, according to the Yale Budget Lab. That's certainly an odd win. The tariffs are cutting into profits at Ford (F), General Motors (GM), Procter & Gamble (PG), and many other American companies, including some that say they'll have to pass the higher costs on to consumers through higher prices. Shoppers will face renewed inflationary pressures and a slowdown in hiring likely to come from slower growth. Trump tariff defenders argue that economists have been wrong about inflation because it hasn't shown up yet. But that is probably just a matter of timing. Producers and merchants stocked up on imports during the first quarter, knowing the Trump tariffs were coming. They bought a lot less in the second quarter, when many new tariffs were in effect. That is only now beginning to show up in everyday prices. But the early signs show inflation picking up exactly where you'd expect import tariffs to hit. Inflation data for June showed unusual month-to-month increases in the cost of appliances, toys, clothing, and sporting goods. Imports dominate those product sectors, so if you were looking for tariff-related inflation, that's where you'd find it. "Tariffs [are] beginning to rear their ugly head," Oxford Economics explained in a July 15 analysis. "Tariff impacts on the economy are still in the pipeline."It's an open question whether Trump's import taxes will raise prices enough to cause consumers serious pain. The Yale Budget Lab expects higher tariffs to cost the typical household about $2,100 per year, once importers, suppliers, and consumers have adjusted to higher prices by shifting their business strategies and buying habits. If the government forced every family in the US to cough up an extra $2,100 per year, there would be national outrage and maybe revolt. The tariffs won't work like that. Part of the cost to families will be gradually rising prices, some noticeable, others not. Economists generally think the tariffs will push the annual inflation rate from 2.7% now to the high threes or maybe 4%. It's already up from a low of 2.3% in April. But 4% isn't nearly as painful as the 9% inflation from 2022. Read more: What Trump's tariffs mean for the economy and your wallet Other parts of the cost to families will come from slower economic growth, which in turn will mean lower pay than some workers would otherwise earn and slightly higher unemployment. Tariffs are inefficient, introducing new costs and barriers to trade. That hurts growth. Trump may hope the costs of his trade wars are imperceptible to most Americans. But he's hedging. Trump wants Congress to pass legislation to send "tariff rebates" of $600 or more to most taxpayers, drawing the funds from new tariff revenue the Treasury is collecting. Thoughtful voters might ask why Trump is imposing new taxes on one hand, then offering relief from those taxes through a rebate. Wouldn't it be better to do nothing in the first place? Given that type of complexity, most Americans will struggle to determine exactly how tariffs are affecting them. But most voters know that Trump is toying with tariffs. They also know Trump signed a big set of tax cuts into law in early July and that Trump is slashing a wide range of government agencies. Trump is forcing a lot of highly visible change on the economy, which means Trump owns the consequences. Voters may already be blaming him for the problems they see. Trump's approval rating for his handling of the economy dropped from 42% in February to 37% in July, according to Gallup. His overall approval rating dropped from 47% when he took office to 37%. Winners don't usually lose popularity. Trump inherited a very prickly electorate when he took office in January. Voters chose Trump in the 2024 presidential race in large part because they wanted him to bring prices down and create more opportunity than they experienced during the Biden years. Trump, so far, is doing the opposite. GDP growth in the first half of 2025 was a weak 1.3%, a percentage point lower than in 2024. Spending is slowing down, and inflation is already higher than economists expected late last year after Trump won the election. Consumer confidence has mostly fallen since Trump took office, with the University of Michigan sentiment index nearly as low as it was at the moment of peak inflation in 2022. If Trump is winning, then it's ordinary Americans he's winning against. Rick Newman is a senior columnist for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Bluesky and X: @rickjnewman. Click here for political news related to business and money policies that will shape tomorrow's stock prices. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
