I just read a post on FB that got my spidey senses tingling.
An architect named Andrew Kerr just laid out why Trump’s White House ballroom project is basically bullshit. And his math checks out.
Heres the deal. Trump’s now saying this 90,000 square foot ballroom will cost $300 million. Do the math on that – its $3,333 per square foot. For context, $1,000 per square foot is already astronomical for construction. Were talking about a price tag that makes zero sense unless you’re building on the moon.
Kerr points out that if this thing actually follows classical proportions like the renderings suggest, you’re looking at a footprint about 380 feet by 235 feet. Thats longer than a football field and 1.5 times as wide. For a ballroom that’s supposed to hold 999 people – which by the way, started at 650 people when this was first announced in July and magically grew to accommodate almost 1,000.
Lets talk about what you actually need for 999 people according to Kerr. At a comfortable 20 square feet per person for a banquet – which is pretty generous – you need 20,000 square feet. Throw in another 10,000 for support functions and 10,000 for pre-function space, and you’re at 40,000 square feet. Thats less than half of the supposed 90,000 square feet. So what’s the other 50,000 square feet for?The renderings are also suspect. Kerr notes that the interior and exterior views don’t match. The White House is 70 feet tall to the roof. The interior renderings show a room about 100 by 200 feet with a 20-foot ceiling. But the exterior renderings show a footprint 4.5 times larger than that. The math doesn’t work.
Plus – there are no actual architectural drawings. Just some pretty renderings that could have been whipped up by junior staff in a week or two. Thats it. No construction documents, no engineered plans, no detailed specifications. For a $300 million project that’s supposedly breaking ground and already has demolition crews tearing down the East Wing.
For context, typical commercial construction in 2025 runs $240 to $870 per square foot depending on location and building type. Even high-rise offices in expensive cities like DC max out around $870 to $1,000 per square foot. Trump’s ballroom is coming in at more than three times that amount.
Lets also talk about what this space is actually for. The current East Room holds 200 people for state dinners. So were supposedly building something 1.6 times the size of the entire White House residence to accommodate 5 times the capacity of the East Room.
The architect behind this project? James McCrery – whose firm specializes in Catholic churches. His biggest project to date was the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in Knoxville, Tennessee. His other federal government work includes designing a pedestal for a Ronald Reagan statue and a gift shop at the Supreme Court. Thats it. Now he’s supposedly designing a $300 million addition to the most famous building in America that’s bigger than the White House itself.
The firms website is basically empty – just a contact form for new commissions and a slideshow. No detailed project portfolio, no team information, nothing that would inspire confidence in a firm handling a project of this magnitude. Even their Instagram is bare – Committed to Tradition and Excellence in the bio, but zero posts.
Heres what makes this whole thing smell like bullshit: The project was announced in July with a $200 million price tag. By September, Trump was saying $250 million. Now in October, were at $300 million – a 50% cost increase before construction even really starts. Thats not how legitimate projects work. Thats how grifts work.
The timeline is also absurd. They announced this in July, started demolition in September, and claim theyll have it done before Trump’s term ends in January 2029. Thats less than four years to design, permit, and construct a 90,000 square foot addition to a National Historic Landmark. For context, the Truman renovation of the White House – which kept only the exterior walls standing – took nearly four years from 1948 to 1952. And that was with full congressional funding and proper oversight.
Now, let me ask you this – if the timeline is correct – why the hell would the most selfish man on earth spend 3.5 years building a ballroom that won’t be ready to use until the month he moves out of the White House?Yeah – this is all bullshit.