President Donald Trump has made many architectural changes to the White House and Washington, D.C. This has been part of his new mission to “make federal architecture great again,” including building a ballroom, adding the presidential walk of fame, redesigning the rose garden, and his future plans to build an Independence Arc.
On July 31st, Trump announced his plans to build a new ballroom in the White House to replace the East Wing. The Trump Administration was unhappy with the White House’s tradition of hosting large groups on the lawn under tents, so they found a solution by building a ballroom. The East Wing held up to 200 people, featured a guest entrance, and office space for the First Lady’s staff. In comparison, the room will be 90,000 square feet and hold up to 650 people. The original price estimate was 200 million dollars and has since risen to 300 million dollars; the project will be funded from private donations and Trump’s own money. Some notable funders of the ballroom are Google, Microsoft, Apple, and T-Mobile. Construction began in September of 2025 and is set to be finished by January of 2029.
Sam Acevedo, a sophomore at Claremont High School, explained their perspective on the ballroom. “[Building the ballroom] is like they are trying to make [the White House] into a palace,” Acevedo said. Many lawsuits have been filed against this ballroom under the law that construction on the White House has to be permitted by the National Capital Planning Commission. However, the Trump administration has argued that the rebuilding of the ballroom will need approval by the committee, but demolition does not. Other legal concerns regarding the project have included that it violates the National Capital Planning Act. In terms of subsidization, there is an ongoing debate about whether the project violates the Anti-Deficiency Act, which prohibits the executive branch from accepting private funds for official government projects.
Other notable architectural plans of Trump’s include covering the White House rose garden with concrete and redesigning the Oval Office. Trump’s Oval Office redesign included the addition of 20 portraits of former presidents on the walls, and gold decorations. Following Trump’s pattern of gold, he has also added a Presidential Hall of Fame to the West Wing, featuring portraits of all the presidents adorned with gold frames. When the hall was unveiled, people were shocked to find the former President Joe Biden’s image had been replaced with an image of an autopen. This is a slight at Joe Biden’s tradition of using an autopen to sign documents.
Eysha Hurley, a sophomore at Claremont High School, gave their opinion on the remodel. “I don’t think that [architecture] should be on the top of his priorities list, considering the state of the nation at the moment,” Hurley said. Trump’s architecture changes are nowhere near complete, with his addition of an independence arc. The arc will be built in honor of the 250th anniversary of the United States next year. It resembles the Arc De Triomphe and will be built in Arlington, Virginia, between the Arlington National Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial. Critics of the monument have nicknamed it the “Arc De Trump,” after Trump shared that he was not building the arc for the American people, but for himself.
Trump’s architectural changes have been a major point of debate over the legality, necessity, and goal of these monuments.
