{"id":5507,"date":"2026-08-28T21:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T21:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=5507"},"modified":"2026-08-28T21:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T21:18:08","slug":"wapo-catches-trump-red-handed-white-house-faked-ballroom-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=5507","title":{"rendered":"WaPo catches Trump red-handed: White House faked ballroom progress"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

While the Trump administration told the Supreme Court that construction on President Donald Trump\u2019s much-demanded White House ballroom was already \u201c65 percent finished,\u201d a new analysis of government documents by the Washington Post<\/u> has revealed that number is far higher than the reality. \u201cBy the White House\u2019s own standard for measuring the project\u2019s progress, established in a confidential agreement with contractor Clark Construction,\u201d reports the Post, \u201cwork on the controversial project was far less complete.\u201d<\/p>\n

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As the Post elaborates, \u201cThe agreement, finalized before Clark began demolition last October, stipulates that payments to the contractor be proportional to the amount of work completed, and that work cannot begin until the government approves spending for it. Based on that, if 65 percent of the work has been done, then the government should already have paid 65 percent of the total cost of the project.\u201d<\/p>\n

But according to publicly available appropriations data, \u201cas of the end of July, the White House budget office had approved $144 million in spending from an account used to pay for the East Wing and other White House projects. Even if that entire amount were spent on the East Wing, it would come to only about 24 percent of the $600 million estimated construction cost that Clark provided the White House in March.\u201d What\u2019s more, \u201cIn the same mid-August court filing in which the administration claimed 65 percent of the project was done, it said that it had already spent \u2018around $200 million.\u2019 If the government had spent $200 million on the East Wing project, the work would be just 33 percent complete, based on the $600 million budget estimate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou really want to understand why there\u2019s such a big gap there,\u201d said retired D.C.-area architect and former president of the American Institute of Architects Carl Elefante, calling the government\u2019s claim about the completion percentage \u201cdoubtful.\u201d <\/p>\n

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According to the Post, \u201cThe 65 percent claim was made in a sworn declaration by Joshua Fisher, the director for White House Management and Administration, who is overseeing the construction project. In the declaration, Fisher did not explain how the percentage was calculated but said, \u2018Work has progressed too far to go back to the drawing board.\u2019 His assertion came as the administration asked the Supreme Court to allow work on the ballroom to continue after lower courts ruled that the project was probably illegal without congressional approval and that construction must stop. The administration argued in part that stopping work while courts considered the merits of the case brought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation would cause \u2018chaos in service of nothing\u2019 because the project had already progressed \u2018beyond the point of judicial intervention.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the Post\u2019s calculations, \u201cMeasured by the expected duration of the work, the project is about 30 percent complete, according to the administration\u2019s timeline. Fisher said in his declaration that construction began in late October 2025 and is expected to be complete in August 2028. That puts the work 10 months into a 34-month construction schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump is reportedly still \u201ctinkering around\u201d with details of the ballroom. According to the Post, \u201cSome of those changes involve the ballroom\u2019s exterior. Renderings that the administration shared with the Supreme Court this month included the addition of a new feature that Trump picked out \u2014 golden seals on the exterior of the ballroom<\/u> \u2014 and the restoration of another feature, a staircase, that had been included in prior plans before being abandoned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Trump just put $4 billion on the chopping block in deep red Missouri<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While the Trump administration told the Supreme Court that construction on President Donald Trump\u2019s much-demanded White House ballroom was already \u201c65 percent finished,\u201d a new analysis of government documents by the Washington Post has revealed that number is far higher than the reality. \u201cBy the Whi…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nWaPo catches Trump red-handed: White House faked ballroom progress - Next Address America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=5507\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"WaPo catches Trump red-handed: White House faked ballroom progress - 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