OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
2:10 PM – Thursday, October 23, 2025
Amazon, Apple, and Google are among the major companies contributing to President Donald Trump’s soon-to-be 90,000-square-foot White House ballroom, joined by other tech firms, defense contractors, and individual donors.
On Wednesday, Trump noted that the grand ballroom is now looking like it will cost “about $300 million.”
When first announced on July 31st, the project was estimated to cost at around $200 million. This figure was cited by White House officials and included a contract awarded to a consortium led by Clark Construction. However, by mid-September, the estimate rose to about $250 million, as Trump told reporters the project was proving “expensive” but would be fully covered by private funds. Then, on Wednesday, during an Oval Office discussion with reporters, Trump raised the total to “about $300 million.
The escalation stems from an increased scope: detailed planning revealed the need for more extensive structural work, higher-end materials, and unforeseen costs tied to the demolition and rebuilding process.
Trump defended the hike by showcasing renderings and reiterating that “the country” and U.S. taxpayers are not paying for the ballroom — only himself and donors will be funding it.
The White House comprises the Executive Residence, home to the Blue Room and the First Family’s bedrooms, the West Wing, where the Oval Office is located, and the East Wing, which houses offices for the First Lady and her staff. The West and East Wings connect to the main building via the West Colonnade and East Colonnade, respectively.
The White House also announced that it had broken ground on the project this week, demolishing the façade of the East Wing to add the ballroom expansion.
In response, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton posted on X: “It’s not his house. It’s your house. And he’s destroying it.”
However, conservatives pushed back on Clinton, reminding her that she and her husband took tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of items from the White House when President Bill Clinton’s term ended.
When the Clintons left the White House in 2001, they admitted “taking” about $190,000 in gifts, including furniture, silverware, art and other household items. Donors later said those items were intended for the White House, not the Clintons personally. After questions were raised, the Clintons eventually returned about $28,000 worth of items and paid around $86,000 for others.
Governor Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) also reacted negatively to the demolition, responding on X, “Ripping apart the White House just like he’s ripping apart the Constitution.”
Nonetheless, like the scrutiny faced by Clinton, Newsom’s renovation efforts in California drew immediate criticism as well. In contrast to the privately funded White House project, California’s state Capitol complex renovation in Sacramento, costing $1.2 billion to $1.6 billion, will be fully U.S. taxpayer-funded.
Online commenters residing in California also noted on social media that, nine months after the devastating wildfire scorched over 23,000 acres, the Palisades remain unrestored.
The White House confirmed the list of donors to The Hill, which includes:
- Altria Group, Inc.
- Amazon
- Apple
- Booz Allen Hamilton
- Caterpillar, Inc.
- Coinbase
- Comcast Corporation
- J. Pepe and Emilia Fanjul
- Hard Rock International
- HP Inc.
- Lockheed Martin
- Meta Platforms
- Micron Technology
- Microsoft
- NextEra Energy, Inc.
- Palantir Technologies Inc.
- Ripple
- Reynolds American
- T-Mobile
- Tether America
- Union Pacific Railroad
- Adelson Family Foundation
- Stefan E. Brodie
- Betty Wold Johnson Foundation
- Charles and Marissa Cascarilla
- Edward and Shari Glazer
- Harold Hamm
- Benjamin Leon Jr.
- The Lutnick Family
- The Laura & Isaac Perlmutter Foundation
- Stephen A. Schwarzman
- Konstantin Sokolov
- Kelly Loeffler and Jeff Sprecher
- Paolo Tiramani
- Cameron Winklevoss
- Tyler Winklevoss
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