I Know Why Smacked-Down Trump Squeals About Ballroom: Author

President Donald Trump has repeatedly said building his White House ballroom is a matter of national security—but his longtime biographer thinks that is merely a cover to get what he really wants.

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Author Michael Wolff said the president’s largest pet project in Washington, D.C., is not about protection or national security, but is about having a space to welcome people to see him speak.

Trump raged in a nearly 500-word Truth Social tantrum after an appellate court blocked the construction of the sprawling facility on Friday. He said that ruling was “horrendous, politically motivated, and unlawful,” branding it “a National Security threat to our Nation in that the entire Complex is being built for the protection of our Country and, additionally, all future Presidents.”

The 90,000-square-foot ballroom is expected to be dipped in gold, in true Trump fashion, and house a bunker complete with shelters and medical facilities.

Wolff said the bunker is just a case of Trump “adding on these things as justifications for the ballroom.”

“He wants the ballroom because he wants, you know, big audiences. Essentially what he’s creating is a venue. That’s what he wants. He likes big events. He likes big audiences. The bigger the better,” he continued. “The more people, the more opportunities for Donald Trump to appear before an audience. So this is not about national security. This is about Donald Trump.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

When he first unveiled the vanity project in July 2025, Trump claimed that previous presidents wanted a White House ballroom for more than a century because they lacked space to host big events.

“They’ve wanted a ballroom at the White House for more than 150 years, but there’s never been a president that was good at ballrooms. I’m really good,” he said at the time. “In the first term, I said, you know, ‘If I get another shot at this, I’m going to do a ballroom.’”

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“I always said I was going to do something about the ballroom because they should have one,” Trump added. “It’ll be a great legacy project, and I think it’ll be special.”

But over time, as the project came under legal scrutiny and its cost doubled to a staggering $400 million, Trump’s rationale for the ballroom turned ominously existential.

In February, Justice Department lawyers claimed that the project had “national security implications” as it scrambled to stop the courts from handing down a ruling that would halt construction. In June, Trump rebranded the facility as “Our Great National Security Facility and Ballroom.”

But that did not stop a three-judge panel in D.C. from upholding a preliminary injunction earlier won by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which sued the government when the Trump administration pursued the project without congressional approval.

“Congress has not ceded unfettered authority to the Executive Branch to dramatically redesign, reshape, and reconstruct the White House — the People’s ​House — to fit a particular President’s desires,” the court said. Obama appointee Patricia Millett and Biden nominee Bradley Garcia formed the majority, while Trump pick Neomi Rao dissented.

Trump swiftly announced that he would appeal the case to the Supreme Court. But Wolff predicted that the high court would be reluctant to weigh in.

“I’m sure Trump already has the satisfaction of knowing that this has all gone too far, that he is already significantly ahead of any decision that is going to be made,” he said. “And now this goes, of course, to the Supreme Court. This is in the hands of Trump’s judges. And the Supreme Court is going to be, I think, pretty reluctant to make this decision.”