Trump Hosts Corporate Ballroom Donors

BY MERIDITH MCGRAW AND ANNIE LINSKEY

WASHINGTON—More than three dozen organizations and individuals, including companies with business before the federal government, attended a dinner with President Trump on Wednesday evening after opening their checkbooks to support the new $250 million ballroom under construction at the White House.

Companies that sent representatives to the East Room event include Lockheed Martin, Microsoft , Meta Platforms, Alphabet ’s Google, Amazon.com

and Palantir Technologies, according to the White House. The guest list also featured wealthy individuals and families, such as oil billionaire Harold Hamm, Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman and investors Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss.

“Chief executives throughout history have contributed to making the White House special and nothing of this magnitude has been done,” Trump said at the beginning of the event. He noted renovations and building projects done by past presidents, including James Monroe’s South Portico and Theodore Roosevelt’s West Wing.

The dinner was billed to “Establish the Magnificent White House Ballroom,” according to a copy of the invitation reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The invitation, which was written in Trump’s trademark gold lettering, listed the president as the event’s host.

Trump views the new ballroom as an important part of his presidential legacy. Since taking office, he has already redecorated parts of the White House complex, including the Rose Garden, Oval Office, Palm Room and Colonnade.

The former developer said thinking about real estate is “relaxing” for him. At one point during the dinner, the president drew open the yellow curtains in the East Room to show his guests progress on the ballroom outside.

The president has held meetings at the White House and at his club in Virginia about raising money for the ballroom project, people familiar with the efforts said. Meredith O’Rourke, the president’s political fundraiser, has been involved in the ballroom fundraising.

Trump said he has been approached by companies willing to donate money but also materials for the ballroom.

Trump’s effort to secure funding for the ballroom also has alarmed ethics watchdogs, who worry that it puts pressure on companies to donate or risk angering the president.

“Every company that is invited to that dinner that either doesn’t show or doesn’t give knows now they will be out of favor with the Trump administration,” said Claire Finkelstein, a University of Pennsylvania law professor and faculty director of the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law.

The new White House ballroom would add at least 90,000 square feet of space with the capacity for over 650 seats, according to administration officials. The East Room has enough space for 200 seats. The main footprint of the White House, not including the East and West Wing, is approximately 55,000 square feet.

The president has long argued that a ballroom is necessary for a modern White House to hold events. He has noted that state dinners are frequently held on the South Lawn in temporary tents. Trump pitched the Obama administration on building a ballroom and said he would pay for it, but the offer was declined.

Trump is discussing other construction projects. He is planning to build a large white arch in a traffic circle across from Arlington National Cemetery. He expects that project will also be funded by corporate donations, according to a White House official. It is unclear how much the project would cost.

“It’s going to be very beautiful, I think it will be fantastic,” Trump said at the dinner, holding up a model of the arch with a gold Lady Liberty on top.

Trump recently posted on social media a concept for the arch designed by D.C.-based architecture firm Harrison Design.

Funds raised ahead of Wednesday’s dinner—which benefit the ballroom—went to the Trust for the National Mall, a small philanthropic nonprofit created in 2002 to partner with the National Park Service. You-Tube, a Google subsidiary, last month gave $22 million to the nonprofit for the ballroom as part of a settlement for a 2021 civil lawsuit that Trump brought against the company.

The $22 million from Google more than doubled the nonprofit’s budget, which was $9.5 million in 2024, according to the group’s tax forms.

Still, not all of the outreach for Wednesday’s dinner was successful. One Washington insider said one of their clients declined to participate because the client wants their money to fund Republican House and Senate campaigns, “not building Versailles.”