President Donald Trump spent time Friday morning picking out materials for his ongoing White House ballroom project. ‘President Trump is purchasing marble and onyx, at his own expense, for the White House Ballroom,’ a White House official said, as his motorcade stopped at Arc Stone & Tile in Lake Worth, Florida, four miles down the road from Mar-a-Lago. The project is at the center of a legal battle with preservation groups after Trump demolished the White House’s East Wing without any government oversight.
So far, a judge has allowed the project to go on, but the White House was supposed to submit plans to the National Capital Planning Commission by Wednesday. During a court hearing last month, lawyers for the Department of Justice said that the ballroom plans were still in flux, also arguing that construction needed to continue, citing national security concerns. The White House’s bunker is underneath where the East Wing stood.
Trump is a marble fanatic. At the White House, he has already added it to the Lincoln Bedroom’s renovated bathroom and had it installed on the Palm Room floor. During his trip to the Middle East in mid-May, he gushed about the use of marble in the palaces of Doha, Qatar. ‘This room is the real deal. That’s called white marble. It’s very hard to buy, believe me, I know very well, because you try to buy it and you can’t buy it,’ Trump said as he signed business agreements alongside Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
‘And you just take a look at what you have here. It’s been incredible – what you’ve been able to build as a nation,’ he added. Later, while visiting Qatar’s Amiri Diwan, Trump brought up marble again. ‘As a construction person, I’m seeing perfect marble. This is what they call – perfecto,’ the president said. Last week, Trump floated the idea of using marble on the newly renamed Trump-Kennedy Center’s armrests.
‘Potential Marble armrests for the seating at The Trump Kennedy Center. Unlike anything ever done or seen before!’ he posted to Truth Social on December 26. Trump has several projects up his sleeve that he argues will beautify Washington, D.C. Earlier this week, he told Politico that construction of the ‘Triumphant Arch,’ which has been nicknamed the Arc de Trump, will likely begin by the end of February.
The Arch, which will be built across the river from the Lincoln Memorial, is supposed to mark the country’s 250th anniversary. On Friday morning, before motorcading to the marble store, Trump also teased that he still planned to paint the Eisenhower Executive Office Building white. Preservationist groups have filed a lawsuit over this change as well, as the building, which dates back to 1888, is slate gray.
