President Donald Trump said he is hard at work on something the country “desperately” needs.
But not everyone agrees with his urgency on this one.
“I’m building something right now in the White House, one of the greatest ballrooms, so desperately needed, anywhere in the world,” he said during a Fox Business interview with Larry Kudlow that aired on Tuesday.
Kudlow had asked the president about Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, whom Trump has been feuding with over interest rates. Trump complained about the ballooning cost of a renovation of the Fed’s office buildings under Powell’s watch.
That’s when Trump shifted to the massive ballroom he is having built on the grounds of the White House, bragging that he was getting it done for “a fraction of what this guy’s doing.”
Trump has said the ballroom will cost up to $400 million, but will be funded by private donations ― a move that has raised ethical and legal questions the White House has yet to answer.

Rod Lamkey Jr./Associated Press
Trump has been so obsessed with his ballroom that he frequently brings it up unprompted. Last month, during a White House meeting with oil industry executives to discuss Venezuela, Trump suddenly got up from the table to stare out a window at the construction site.
“I gotta look at this myself,” he said. “Wow, what a view.”

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The view at that moment wasn’t much; Trump last year had the East Wing of the White House demolished to make room for his ballroom ― a move that led to a lawsuit from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which is attempting to block the project.
Trump has railed against the lawsuit, last month also insisting that the ballroom is “desperately needed” as he attacked the agency on social media.
But even after hearing him say it again on Tuesday night, critics were not convinced ― with many pointing out that the real desperate need is for relief from rising prices on groceries, rent, health insurance premiums and more.
