President Donald Trump hosted an exclusive dinner at the White House to unveil the new $250 million ballroom — the most lavish renovation of his second term. Surrounded by top donors, business magnates, and tech giants from Apple to Amazon, Trump showcased the bulletproof-glass ballroom, calling it “phenomenal.” Guests dined in opulence as Trump also revealed plans for a monumental “Lady Liberty” arch near Arlington Bridge. During the glitzy event, he hinted at major announcements on the Ukraine war and the Gaza conflict.
#Trump #WhiteHouse #TrumpDinner #WhiteHouseBallroom #DonaldTrump #GalaEvent #PoliticalNews #UkraineWar #GazaCrisis #LuxuryPolitics #PresidentialDinner #MegaDonors #TrumpBallroom #BreakingNews #USPolitics #GlobalAffairs #TrumpEvent #WhiteHouseRenovation #LadyLibertyArch #TrumpAnnouncement #TechGiants #PoliticalElite #GoldPlatedPolitics #WashingtonDC #WorldNews #TrumpSpeech #GOPDonors #HighSociety #PresidentialStyle #TrumpSecondTerm
Also Read
Charlie Kirk: US Revokes 6 Visas Over Social Media Comments :: https://www.oneindia.com/international/charlie-kirk-us-revokes-6-visas-over-social-media-comments-7889219.html?ref=DMDesc
Questions Remain On Donald Trump's Gaza Peace Plan :: https://www.oneindia.com/international/questions-remain-on-donald-trumps-gaza-peace-plan-7888171.html?ref=DMDesc
Trump Arrives In Israel To Tout Ceasefire He Believes Could Foster Lasting Middle East Peace :: https://www.oneindia.com/international/trump-arrives-in-israel-to-tout-ceasefire-he-believes-could-foster-lasting-middle-east-peace-7887337.html?ref=DMDesc
~HT.318~ED.420~GR.122~
#Trump #WhiteHouse #TrumpDinner #WhiteHouseBallroom #DonaldTrump #GalaEvent #PoliticalNews #UkraineWar #GazaCrisis #LuxuryPolitics #PresidentialDinner #MegaDonors #TrumpBallroom #BreakingNews #USPolitics #GlobalAffairs #TrumpEvent #WhiteHouseRenovation #LadyLibertyArch #TrumpAnnouncement #TechGiants #PoliticalElite #GoldPlatedPolitics #WashingtonDC #WorldNews #TrumpSpeech #GOPDonors #HighSociety #PresidentialStyle #TrumpSecondTerm
Also Read
Charlie Kirk: US Revokes 6 Visas Over Social Media Comments :: https://www.oneindia.com/international/charlie-kirk-us-revokes-6-visas-over-social-media-comments-7889219.html?ref=DMDesc
Questions Remain On Donald Trump's Gaza Peace Plan :: https://www.oneindia.com/international/questions-remain-on-donald-trumps-gaza-peace-plan-7888171.html?ref=DMDesc
Trump Arrives In Israel To Tout Ceasefire He Believes Could Foster Lasting Middle East Peace :: https://www.oneindia.com/international/trump-arrives-in-israel-to-tout-ceasefire-he-believes-could-foster-lasting-middle-east-peace-7887337.html?ref=DMDesc
~HT.318~ED.420~GR.122~
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States.
00:30Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States is the President of the United States.
00:52Thank you very much.
01:00Thank you very much, everybody.
01:10Thank you very much.
01:11It's a real honor to be with you.
01:13I got back from the Middle East.
01:14We had a really historic trip.
01:17I would say it would be the least of it.
01:20We had tremendous progress on peace in the Middle East, which is a term that hasn't even been used in 50 years, probably.
01:29And it's 3,000 years we're playing with, so people thought that was something.
01:34And it really was incredible.
01:36We had tremendous, tremendous friendships.
01:40And we've developed some friendships, even over the last few days.
01:43And it's going very well.
01:45And we got the hostages back, which is a big deal.
01:48The hostages are coming.
01:52Everybody feels that way.
01:59Everybody feels that way.
02:00And other things are happening.
02:02Even today, things are happening that are very positive.
02:04Everyone wants to see it happen.
02:06Countries that didn't get along with each other are now seemingly in love with each other.
02:11Now, in the Middle East, that'll change, perhaps.
02:13But the deal will still be there.
02:15And it's going to be — I think it's going to be something to remember.
02:18We have — we've settled now eight wars, if you think.
02:22It was seven.
02:23Now it's eight.
02:25Now we have another one left.
02:30One of the easier ones I thought was going to be Russia.
02:32I thought the Russia-Ukraine would be easy.
02:34It would have never happened.
02:35It should have never happened.
02:36But a lot of people are being killed in that war.
02:38That was — it's the bloodiest war since the Second World War.
02:41I think that we'll get that one, too, and we'll stop.
02:46You know, it's not from the U.S.
02:48These soldiers that are dying all over the place.
02:50Seven — 7,212, they say, last week died.
02:54Think of that — 7,212 soldiers.
02:57For no reason.
02:58It should have never happened.
03:00It should have — if the right person were here, it wouldn't have happened.
03:02I can guarantee you that.
03:04But it did happen, and we've made some good progress.
03:08You've interestingly made a lot of progress today because of what took place in the Middle East.
03:13Only the deep-thinking business people would understand that, of which we have a lot of them.
03:18We have a lot of legends in the room tonight.
03:21And that's why we're here — to celebrate you, because you've given tremendous amounts of money to see a ballroom built for the first time at the White House.
03:32The White House, for 150 years-plus, they've wanted to have a ballroom.
03:37And it never happened because they never had a real estate person.
03:40For me, I like it.
03:42For me, it's like — I love it in between China, Russia, and everything else that we deal with.
03:49It's going to be a great ballroom.
03:52It's going to be a great ballroom.
03:54As an example, this has really been the ballroom for many years.
03:57And it holds 100 people, of which we have 125 today, I'll tell you.
04:02But, you know, we have 128, and I've never seen it with 128.
04:07And, by the way, you're going to have a little good entertainment from the military band right after this.
04:12You'll see some really talented musicians.
04:14They're going to do a few songs, and you're going to love them.
04:17They're very talented people.
04:19But — so, for years, they've wanted to have it.
04:22And when they have the head of China, the head of any country — we have many — many of the countries came —
04:28and they'd always put the tent out on the lawn.
04:32And if it was not raining, you'd get away with it a little bit, but it's still a tent.
04:38And the biggest dignitaries in the world — not only political, but in many ways — many other ways, too.
04:46And so I always said that if I pull it off again, we are going to build a ballroom,
04:53and I'm going to start right at the beginning.
04:55And we had it designed by one of the top architects in Washington, who's very, very respected.
05:01And — very, very respected, actually.
05:03And we started the process, and we have it concluded, and it's actually starting right behind us.
05:10And if you look, this is really a knockout panel.
05:13Should I show you?
05:14I guess maybe you've sort of seen, right?
05:20So we don't really want you to walk on there, but you can take a look if you want, if you're curious,
05:26because we took out all the strength from underneath that collapsed.
05:29We collapsed over the next few days.
05:32It's going to be demolished.
05:34Everything out there is coming down, and we're replacing it with one of the most beautiful ballrooms that you've ever seen.
05:41And you have some pictures.
05:42And basically, it's right here.
05:44Here's your White House.
05:45Here's the West Wing.
05:47And here's the East Side, which has been tinkered with for years and years and years.
05:52And they had originally a very beautiful building.
05:56They called it the East Wing, but that was sort of semi-knocked down about five times and changed and redone and everything else.
06:04It was originally done by McKim, Meade, and White, great architects.
06:08And so that came down, and mostly it's taken down already.
06:13And we've started excavation.
06:15I'm very good at building things on time on budget, that I can tell you.
06:19You're not going to see, like the Fed, where they're up to $4 billion or something to paint some walls.
06:24It's the craziest thing I've ever seen.
06:26This guy, he's too late.
06:28He should have been too late with that one, not done it.
06:30It would have been better.
06:31It didn't need to be done.
06:32He could have painted the ceilings.
06:34They ripped down a gorgeous ceiling like this.
06:36And then they said, we have a problem.
06:38Now we have to put one up.
06:39How do you do a ceiling like this?
06:41And they're way over budget.
06:43They decided they wanted to do a basement.
06:45But unfortunately, the basement is right next — you know, you're right next to the Potomac.
06:49And when we went down, they should have stopped immediately because they should have known.
06:54But they have a little thing called the Potomac River, where the basement is.
06:57But they said, we're going to get it done anyway.
06:59So you build what's called a reverse bathtub.
07:02And it's not that uncommon, but it is actually a reverse.
07:05You seal it.
07:07The problem is, nature always wins.
07:09I know a lot about reverse bathtubs.
07:11I've done it.
07:12And it's something you only do in emergencies.
07:15You don't — there was no reason to do it there.
07:18They could have actually — if you think about it — they could have added three floors on top,
07:21and it would have cost about $2 billion less.
07:23So they ended up in this disaster of building a basement in the Potomac River.
07:29And keeping the water out — very hard to do as you're pouring your concrete, which has to be dry.
07:34And it's been a disaster.
07:37And this is the same guy that keeps your interest rates too high.
07:40We should be — we should be much lower in interest.
07:43We're doing so well, but we would have been — as good as that is, even better.
07:48I don't think it's affected us much.
07:49It can't.
07:50We have an all-time high stock market.
07:52Everybody in this room is extremely happy with Trump.
07:54If you weren't, I would have postponed it.
07:56I would have said, let's do it — let's do it some other time.
08:00But the stock market hits records almost — almost all the time.
08:04Every once in a while, we'll have a little situation come up that drives it down,
08:09but it comes right back.
08:10We're doing really well in trade.
08:12We're taking in hundreds of billions of dollars on the tariffs.
08:15The tariffs are making this country so rich, and they're making it powerful.
08:19We stopped a lot of these wars using trade.
08:23We had — as an example, India and Pakistan were going at it really hard.
08:29Seven planes were shot down.
08:31It was going to happen.
08:32Bad things were happening.
08:33And I was talking to both of them about trade.
08:36And I said, how are we doing with those two?
08:38Sir, we're doing very well.
08:39I'm like, great.
08:40Well, we're not going to do well.
08:41We're not going to do a trade deal unless they stop the war.
08:44And I got them on the phone, and I said, listen,
08:48we're going to put a 200 percent tariff on your country
08:52for any product you sell into the United States,
08:55unless you stop this war.
08:57Because I'm not going to be a party to it.
08:59You have two nuclear nations, by the way.
09:01No, no, no, you can't do that.
09:03I say, I can do that. Very easily I can.
09:05We're not going to have — lose millions of people from the planet.
09:08And, frankly, that dust can blow over here, too.
09:11It affects everything.
09:12It's a powerful, powerful weapon.
09:14Too powerful.
09:15So powerful, you don't want to talk about it.
09:17So they said, no, no.
09:19I said, yes, yes.
09:20Here's the story.
09:21If you're going to go and do it, we're cutting off all negotiations.
09:25There'll be no trade with the United States of America.
09:28Both nations.
09:29I spoke to them both.
09:30I like both.
09:31The leaders, I like them both a lot.
09:33But I said, that's the way it is.
09:35And I get a call the next day, we have decided to de-escalate.
09:38I said, I thought you would, actually.
09:40We have decided that we will not fight.
09:45I said, have you come to a conclusion?
09:47Yes, we're not going to do anymore.
09:49And they stopped.
09:50It stopped.
09:51Just like that.
09:52This could have been a nuclear war.
09:53Probably would have been.
09:54The Prime Minister of Pakistan came and saw me, and he was emotional about it.
10:00And in front of a group of people, he said, this man saved three million, five million,
10:06maybe an untold number of lives.
10:09And it was just recently that this happened, so.
10:12And we did numerous of them like that.
10:15And part of the reason we did it was trade.
10:17I think of the eight, I would say five were because of trade.
10:20You know, the power of trade, but the power of tariffs.
10:23And tariffs have made us a very kind nation because a lot of people aren't dying.
10:31I use it for purposes of stopping wars.
10:34I love stopping wars.
10:36And sort of interesting.
10:39I'll be the only president.
10:40I don't think any president stopped one war.
10:42I stopped eight wars in eight months.
10:44Did I get a Nobel Prize?
10:46No.
10:47I said, can you believe it?
10:48Even I said, yeah, that's an impossible one.
10:51But it's all right.
10:53I suspect they think next year will be better.
10:55But I don't.
10:56I don't care.
10:57You know what I care about?
10:58I saved maybe hundreds of millions of lives, but certainly I saved millions of lives.
11:02So we're very happy about it.
11:06So now we'll get back to the point on hand.
11:11And that's where you're really here because you've contributed to this incredible building
11:16that people have wanted for so many years.
11:18And we show another building.
11:20It's an arc.
11:21It's the arc.
11:22So that circle that's Arlington Memorial Bridge, as you know, that's sort of the most important
11:29one, a very important structure.
11:30And at the end of it, you have a circle that was built 150 years ago.
11:35Nobody knows really when.
11:36And in fact, they put a couple of columns on each side.
11:39So you have two columns on one side, two columns on the other.
11:43But you have, in the middle, just a circle.
11:46And everyone that passes, it said something was supposed to be built there.
11:50And that's true.
11:51But a thing called the Civil War interfered.
11:54That's a good reason.
11:55I would say, Ike, that would be a good reason, right?
11:57The great Ike Perlmutter.
11:59The Civil War, if you said you're having a war, I think they have a good reason not to build.
12:04Again, you know, they were building the Washington Monument.
12:07Then they stopped.
12:08And you can see where they stopped because the stone is a little different color when you
12:12get up to the middle.
12:13But anyway, they stopped here.
12:15And then they were, in 1902, they were going to put a statue of Robert E. Lee up.
12:20It would have been okay with me.
12:22A lot of people wouldn't have liked it, but it would have been okay with me.
12:25It would have been okay with a lot of the people in this room, but they didn't do that.
12:29And so for years and years, it sat.
12:32And every time somebody rides over that beautiful bridge going right to the Lincoln Memorial,
12:36that's so beautiful, right?
12:38It's — they literally say, something's supposed to be here.
12:44And so we have versions of it, sizes of it.
12:49And it's going to be — it's going to be really beautiful.
12:52I think it's going to be fantastic.
12:53There's a rendering of what it will look like.
12:55You have three sizes.
12:57That would be the largest one.
12:59This is just a model of what it would look like in either of the three — any of the three sizes,
13:04which is right here.
13:05I don't know if you can see it.
13:06It's sort of — it's Lady Liberty.
13:09Lady — did you ever hear of Lady Liberty?
13:13On top.
13:14But — so the sizes would be very different.
13:18Now, here's Lincoln.
13:19And this is sort of facing this way.
13:22And so, you know, there's a direct line.
13:25They did this.
13:26They didn't do that.
13:27So this would be — I go, small, medium, and large, right?
13:34Small, medium, and large.
13:37And whichever one that looked good — I happen to think the large looks my father's best.
13:44Why are — why are you shocked to hear that?
13:47So we're going to, you know, just do something for the city.
13:50Because we're so proud of what we've done with crime.
13:52This is a very safe city now.
13:54This went from a very unsafe city where you were afraid to go out to dinner
13:58to a city that's extremely safe.
14:00The people that we have working on this — it's been a miracle almost.
14:06It took 12 days.
14:07We took out 1,700 people, brought them back to their countries from where they came.
14:12Many of them were let in through the Biden open border — brilliant thing —
14:17where they let people in from jails, from — from prisons and mental institutions.
14:22Insane asylum — that's a mental institution on steroids.
14:26And, I mean, they were literally emptying out insane asylums into our country.
14:31This is Venezuela, but other countries also.
14:33Not only Venezuela.
14:34And speaking of Venezuela, we've — you know, we have a lot of drugs.
14:38We had a lot of drugs coming in by water.
14:41That stopped.
14:42In fact, nobody wants to go fishing anymore.
14:45Nobody — nobody wants to do anywhere — anything near the water.
14:49They might have a beautiful boat, and they might as well get rid of their boat
14:53because they are very nervous about going on the water.
14:58It's been amazing.
14:59So, now, we were having — literally, we — it was like a subway train of people
15:04of — and drugs coming into this country.
15:07A lot of them coming from Venezuela.
15:09A lot of them come from Mexico and Colombia, too, in all fairness.
15:12But we — we wanted to knock out one track.
15:15And I can tell you, we cannot find anybody anymore.
15:18We're looking down.
15:19They're looking down.
15:20There's — there's not a boat on the entire ocean that we can see outside of the ocean liners.
15:27And even they're a little bit concerned about things.
15:30But — but it shows you the power and the strength and the technology of — of our great military.
15:38We have — you know, I rebuilt the military in my first term.
15:40We had a great first term.
15:41We had the best economy ever.
15:43We had a rebuilding of the military.
15:46We had the big tax cuts and the wonderful — the wonder — all of the assets of the tax cuts,
15:52including the one-year depreciation.
15:54You write it off on one year.
15:55Now we have better under the great, big, beautiful bill, because we have no tick — tips for — think of this.
16:02You have no tax on tips, and you have no tax on Social Security, and you have — for your workers.
16:07You have no tax on overtime.
16:09It's really a middle — I would say a middle-of-the-road bill from the standpoint of who is it representing.
16:15It's the workers.
16:16It's the biggest bill ever passed in the history of Congress.
16:20And I'm glad we did, because we don't need any more bills.
16:23We have everything in that one.
16:24Plus, we have the deductibility every single year for 10 years.
16:29The other one had it for one year.
16:30You had a rush.
16:31This year — this time, you don't.
16:33Actually, I was in favor of rushing, because that's awfully good for elections, but it's not about elections.
16:38It's awfully good.
16:39So you have deductibility.
16:40You have so many different things.
16:42We have great social programs, $50 billion going to rural hospitals.
16:47So the great, big, beautiful bill — and we got it all in one — I was very happy, because we had little arguments about that.
16:53A lot of people wanted to do it in small chunks.
16:55I said, if you do it in small chunks, you'll never get it approved.
16:58You'll get some approved, but not all of it, and not even close.
17:01You get much less — I would say less than 30 percent.
17:04So they've never done this before.
17:06They put every single thing that I wanted for four years in one bill, and we call it — some people call it different.
17:14I call it the great, big, beautiful bill, because that's what it is.
17:17And this will keep us — well, we want to manage it now.
17:20We're going to manage it.
17:21All you have to do is that.
17:23But we got it all approved.
17:24And one of the things I thought, though, while I do — because it's so relaxing for me, real estate is relaxing.
17:29For a lot of people, real estate is a very trying business.
17:33I've always liked it.
17:34I've always done well with it.
17:36I love building things.
17:38And this way, I can build some beautiful things.
17:41And this, again, has never been built.
17:44And we're going to start that pretty soon.
17:46It's going to be great.
17:47And then the ballroom for the White House is the thing that you people have really, really been very generous with.
17:54And we're going to build a room that's going to be able to hold literally the inauguration if we want.
18:01All of the glass on the sides is bulletproof.
18:04It's 999 people it can hold.
18:07So if we figure we have 125 people in here approximately now, which I've never seen before.
18:12I've always heard it's less than 100.
18:14But it's amazing when you have too many people, you can fit them in.
18:17You know, you can always fit a few more people in.
18:19And pardon the fact that you're a little tight at your table.
18:22That's okay.
18:23That's better than lots of room for everybody because nobody shows up, right?
18:26But you've been you've been so generous in your contributions.
18:32Very substantial money.
18:34Fully financed.
18:35It's fully taken care of now.
18:37And in fact, we'll have money left over.
18:39And we'll use that for something.
18:41We'll use that probably maybe for the arc or something else that will come.
18:45But we love to fix up Washington.
18:47If you went to the Oval Office, you'd see the Presidential Walk of Fame.
18:53And you've heard about it.
18:54And with the exception of one particular picture, there's no controversy.
19:00It's just it's beautiful.
19:01It's a beautiful thing.
19:02It's a beautiful long wall that existed for all.
19:05And it's just literally a wall with half windows on top.
19:08And that was originally built as a swimming pool.
19:12Now it's where the press is on the other side of the wall.
19:16And it's very interesting.
19:18All these people over here with all their cameras, although they've been very respectful.
19:23I'll tell you what, they've been very respectful for what's taken place over the last week.
19:28So I want to thank you.
19:29This is just a small little group.
19:30They have a big group downstairs.
19:32They have a lot of reporters downstairs wanting to be where they are.
19:38I don't know. These, I guess, are you special?
19:40This is Doug, who's the, he won the highest awards there is in photography, including Pulitzer Prizes, right?
19:50He won many Pulitzer Prizes for, for his great work.
19:55One that I wasn't so happy with.
19:57He had one with a bullet moving along.
20:00He got, he caught the bullet.
20:02Can you believe this?
20:03He got another Pulitzer.
20:04But anyway, it's great to have you gentlemen.
20:06It's really good.
20:07They have a whole group down, a big group downstairs.
20:09I didn't think you'd like to have that up here because they can be, some of them are sort of violent towards some of you.
20:14But not bad.
20:16So we did a design that is being, you know, just lauded for the, for the ballroom.
20:25Showed it to the top people.
20:27One of the things that I like the most, I came in and I said to the people in the building, I said,
20:33so I said, if I make it back, I want to build a ballroom for the country, really, because this is really, they call it the people's house.
20:43It's the country's house.
20:44I want to build a ballroom.
20:46It needs it badly.
20:47And a ballroom that could seat six or seven hundred people so that when you have state dinners or more, if it's possible.
20:53And I said, how long would the process take?
20:56Because I'm so used to zoning.
20:57And I've gone, I've gotten a lot of zoning over the years to these two guys, these two genius, like, like movie stars.
21:04And, and they have a good brain besides.
21:07That's pretty nice.
21:08Nice to have you guys both with us.
21:10So they said, how long?
21:11I said, how long would it take?
21:13They said, sir, you can start tonight.
21:14I said, what are you talking about?
21:16You have zero zoning conditions.
21:18You're the president.
21:19I said, you got to be kidding.
21:21You mean I can actually do something that I really want?
21:24Because I'm used to sitting with heads of community boards and politics and it's fine.
21:30It's part of the, the beauty, if you want to call it that, or sometimes it's not so beautiful of being a real estate developer, especially in New York.
21:39It takes you years and years.
21:41And it's, you know, it's heartache.
21:43And they say, well, sir, we'd like you to cut off 40 stories.
21:46I had one where I had it 67 stories was approved.
21:50And we go to the end and I get an emergency phone call from the head of the board.
21:54Sir, may we see you?
21:55They come in.
21:56Sir, we're going to really not be able to approve it.
21:58We want you to cut off 42 stories.
22:00Cut off.
22:01In other words, I'm going to lose 42 stories.
22:03I said, there's no way you're doing it.
22:05So we fought it out for two years.
22:06You end up getting what you want.
22:07But it's a brutal process.
22:08So over here, I said, how long will it take me?
22:11Sir, you can start tonight.
22:12You have no approvals.
22:13I said, you got to be kidding.
22:15He said, sir, this is the White House.
22:18You're the president of the United States.
22:20You can do anything you want.
22:22So with that came great responsibility.
22:25And we did something that was really appropriate to the White House.
22:31We didn't want to dwarf anything.
22:33We didn't want to make it so that it's inappropriate.
22:37And I was watching that very carefully.
22:39And that's what we did.
22:40And so we're going to have a phenomenal ballroom.
22:42This is going to be one of the best anywhere in the world.
22:45There won't be anything like it, actually.
22:47And it's four sides of glass or glass, beautiful glass,
22:50but totally appropriate in color and in window shape
22:54and everything else with the White House moldings.
22:57So it's going to be very much in keeping with the White House.
23:01You know, a new thing is you build a super modern building
23:03next to an old fashioned building.
23:05And I think that's good.
23:06But I don't have the courage to do that with the White House.
23:09It's good for a lot of places.
23:10It's not good.
23:11It's not good for here.
23:12So everything's very much in keeping.
23:14And we'll be able to have state dinners, the kind of
23:17we would literally not even have state dinners
23:19because it's not set up.
23:20But for all those years, they wanted it.
23:22And now they're going to get it.
23:23And because of you, they're going to get it.
23:24And me too.
23:25We're all in this together.
23:26And I mean, I have so many friends and so many of you
23:31have been really, really generous.
23:33I mean, a couple of you, I'm sitting here saying,
23:36sir, would $25 million be appropriate?
23:38I said, I'll take it.
23:39You know, it doesn't take too many 25s to get it done.
23:43But a lot of I mean, a lot of you were have been really fantastic.
23:48Ike, thank you very much.
23:50You were great.
23:51You were great.
23:52Ike.
23:53And they just felt it was something that's really good.
24:00It's the preservation of something.
24:03That's there's nothing like it.
24:04To me, there's nothing like the White House.
24:06Even after I won the first night, I went up and I'm
24:09standing in the residential hallway with Melania.
24:12And where I'm looking into the Lincoln bedroom, I
24:15said that was a surreal experience.
24:17I'm saying, do you believe this?
24:19We're in the White House and that's the Lincoln bedroom.
24:22And it takes a while to get you.
24:24I'm still not probably really used to it.
24:26It's just a special place.
24:28What can I say?
24:29So we have to take care of it.
24:31And we have little things like at the Lincoln bedroom,
24:34the bathroom was done by the Truman family.
24:37And, you know, long time ago.
24:39And it's done in a green tile.
24:42And it's done as a, in a style that was done
24:46in a style that was not exactly Abe Lincoln.
24:49It's a style that's not good.
24:51So, so we, it's actually Art Deco.
24:56And Art Deco doesn't go with, you know, 1850 and
25:00Civil Wars and all of the problem.
25:03But what does do is statuary marble.
25:05So we, I ripped it apart and we built the bathroom.
25:07The bathroom is, it's absolutely gorgeous and totally
25:10in keeping with that time because the Lincoln bedroom
25:13is so incredible for those of you that have seen it.
25:16We have so many different downstairs.
25:18We have the palm room and they had one by one tiles
25:22that were put there probably 20 years ago by somebody.
25:25And they were broken and bad.
25:27It's embarrassing.
25:28And I took it out and we did a magnificent bookmatched
25:32statuary marble floor.
25:34We fixed the room and we put up the right, you know,
25:37the proper lighting and chandeliers and everything.
25:39It looks incredible.
25:40People walk up, they can't believe how beautiful it is.
25:42And so we like to fix it up.
25:43And it's a little bit of my heritage, fix up and clean up
25:46and make it nice.
25:47And we're doing that with the White House.
25:50So the largest room in the White House was the East Room.
25:53That's this room right here by far.
25:55And it currently holds, let's say, as we said, a hundred.
25:59And for this reason, during major functions and events,
26:03administrations going back many, many decades,
26:06were forced to severely limit the number of events they had
26:10and certainly limit the number of people.
26:12And they had some catastrophic events.
26:14Some of the biggest events were a tent being built on the lawn
26:18and the rain started.
26:19And for some reason, every time they put up a tent here,
26:22it rains and that's not good.
26:24And they tended to use a lower level, which is, you know,
26:28they have pretty big land here, but they used a lower level
26:31where the rain would just seep into the ballroom.
26:33And it wasn't pretty when you're sitting down having dinner,
26:36talking about, hello, President Xi, and how have you been?
26:39And hello, Emmanuel from France and all the different people
26:44that we've had here.
26:45And you've got about four inches of water, literally,
26:50that's going over your shoes.
26:52And you're trying to pretend that it's not happening.
26:55But it's happening.
26:56So we won't have that stuff anymore.
26:58And it'll be great.
26:59We really need it.
27:00The United States is the greatest and most powerful nation on Earth.
27:03And American presidents need to be able to host events
27:06at the White House that reflect the demands of the time
27:10and that can be carry out the prestige of what we're all doing.
27:14I mean, we're a country that a year ago was dead.
27:18We're a dead country a year ago, as many of you know.
27:21And today, we're the hottest country anywhere in the world by far.
27:25Everybody admits it.
27:27The King of Saudi Arabia told me that.
27:29You've heard me say it.
27:30But Qatar, UAE, the European Union came in every country.
27:36They said, it's unbelievable.
27:37What's happened with the United States, we're hot.
27:40And I'll tell you what, had this other group of lunatics been elected,
27:44this country would have, I think, you would have actually failed.
27:49So we went from being a country that was dead, a country that was really in trouble.
27:55Open borders.
27:56Everything they did wrong.
27:57Men and women, sports, transgender for everybody.
28:00Every single thing they did was wrong.
28:02Just go the opposite.
28:03And you couldn't miss.
28:05And we had an election that was a landslide.
28:09It was so big.
28:10We won the popular vote by a lot.
28:12We won all seven swing states.
28:14There are seven swing states, as you know.
28:16And if you win three or four, you do great.
28:18But to win seven is very rare that you see that happen.
28:21We won all seven.
28:22We won the Electoral College by a lot.
28:26We're 312.
28:27Remember, they said, well, I don't know if he can get above 250.
28:30No, we didn't.
28:31We got 312.
28:32And it was great.
28:33We beat them by a lot.
28:35But we have another where you would call it districts or you would call it the there's
28:41a map split up beautifully split up in tidy little quarants.
28:46And they call them districts.
28:47They call them just areas.
28:49And we were 2,750 to 525.
28:55That's why when you look at a map of the election, it was all red with two blue stripes.
28:59Down on one end and the other.
29:02And even them I worry about because I don't I don't believe it.
29:05I don't believe it.
29:06I think we did great there.
29:07And so we've we've had a we've had an amazing time.
29:11It's the most powerful nation on Earth.
29:14Now, you see that you see the weapon.
29:16We have the greatest weapons, the greatest manufacturer of weapons.
29:20Some of you are in that world and some of you.
29:22Yeah, the greatest in the world.
29:24We have the greatest in the world.
29:27I wish we could make them faster if you want to know the truth.
29:30Everybody, all of our allies want them and they want them as quick as they can.
29:33And the American presidents need to be able to showcase our country.
29:39So we'll begin the hysteric, really historic effort to add the we'll call presidential ballroom.
29:46That'll expand the space for tens of thousands of people will be able to come during the course of a year.
29:53If you add it all up and have the kind of the kind of space that you need.
29:58It's very exciting to me.
29:59It's exciting as a person in real estate because you'll never get a location like this again.
30:04Even contracts.
30:05I gave I give out the contracts myself.
30:07Can you believe it?
30:08And we had we just gave out the excavation contract and I guess he was in for 3.2 million.
30:14I said, can you do it for 1.5?
30:16No, I can't do that, sir.
30:17I can't.
30:18I said, this is once in a lifetime.
30:20This is the excavation of the White House grounds for what will be one of the best, most beautiful ballrooms in the world.
30:28Sir, I can't.
30:29I can't.
30:30So but I got it down to 2 million.
30:32So it's not terrible.
30:33So we got it.
30:34And so many people were so great.
30:38Carrier is a great company, air conditioning.
30:40He called.
30:41He said, sir, we'd like to donate the air conditioning.
30:44I said, that's a beautiful thing.
30:46I appreciate that.
30:47He's donating it to the not giving it to me, giving it to the country.
30:51He donated the air conditioning, a steel company, a great steel company, a great man, actually.
30:57He said, sir, I'd like to donate the steel for your ballroom.
31:03I said, well, that's nice.
31:06And I found out how much is the steel.
31:09I called the contract.
31:10Sir, it's down for 37 million.
31:12I said, this is a nice donation, right?
31:15He wants the steel and he wants to make it great steel as opposed to garbage steel because they dump a lot of garbage around, you know.
31:22Steel is like everything else, including human beings.
31:26Steel could be high quality and it can be low quality.
31:29He wants to make sure it's high quality.
31:31But and so many different people are donating services and they're donating products to the ballroom.
31:37It's amazing.
31:38If we keep going like this, I may be able to build it for nothing.
31:41You know, we'll get it built for nothing.
31:43But we're going to be projecting a cost that's going to be we're going to come in under budget.
31:51We started with a much smaller building.
31:53And then I realized, I mean, we have the land.
31:55Let's do it right.
31:56And so we built a larger building that can really hold just about any function that we want.
32:00It'll be done with really exquisite taste, the finest designers.
32:05And I, you know, I consider myself an important designer because they come in with things that they may be good designers, but boy, the things they can recommend are horrible.
32:14And we wanted classic, the utmost respect for the historic beauty and grandeur of one of the most iconic buildings anywhere in the world.
32:22I mean, you go to the White House and you see that picture when when you ride up in the drive like tonight, probably some of you realize you drive up that drive and you're looking at that building all lit up and gorgeous and perfect.
32:33And we take good care of it, too.
32:35Wasn't taking good care of the Oval Office is now at a level that it's never seen before.
32:40We take really great care of it.
32:42They weren't taking good care of it for four years.
32:44I'll tell you that this edition will be completed in the classical style that complements everything else around it,
32:51including including the Treasury Department, which is right next to it.
32:55We have been working very closely with the incredible people of the National Park Service.
33:00They really are.
33:01They love this place.
33:02They're very proud of it.
33:04The architects, historians and everyone else and many others to ensure that the project will be beloved and loved for years to come, for centuries to come.
33:13It's going to be up for a long time, I hope.
33:16To the cherished White House staff and everyone else that worked so hard, I want to thank you very much.
33:21And it's from James Monroe, who added the South Portico.
33:25I don't know if you know the South Portico.
33:27To Andrew Jackson, who added the North Portico.
33:30To Theodore Roosevelt, who added the West Wing.
33:33Did you know that?
33:34Theodore Roosevelt.
33:35Long time ago.
33:36And Harry Truman, who added the Truman Balcony.
33:39He wanted the Truman Balcony.
33:40That's right up here, so you have the balcony off the residential.
33:46Chief executives throughout the history have contributed to making the White House special.
33:52And nothing of this magnitude has been done.
33:56But the first — the real — the really big recent renovation was the West Wing and the Oval Office.
34:06And that's pretty major, in terms of what it stands for.
34:09It's actually not big, but it's really big in another way.
34:13It's the biggest, I would say, in another way.
34:16And that was around 1900.
34:19So that's a long time ago.
34:21That's a long time ago.
34:22And this is going to be something that's going to make you all very proud.
34:25So, now we have the presidential ballroom.
34:28We're ensuring that the People's House will continue to serve the American people properly.
34:34And we can have all the people in the world come.
34:36And they'll say, boy, what a place that is.
34:38But I want to thank — and just leave it by thanking everybody in this room.
34:42You've been unbelievable.
34:43Some of you have been just incredible.
34:46You really felt it was very important to do this.
34:49And it happened so quickly.
34:50I mean, I thought I'd have this dinner, like, in a year from now — a year and a half from now.
34:55And we have it already because it's fully taken care of.
35:00And I just want to thank you all.
35:01You're very special people, really.
35:03But somehow the — the ballroom at the White House, it really hit a nerve with a lot of people.
35:09They wanted it.
35:10You love the country.
35:11You know, this country has spirit again.
35:13This country didn't have a lot of spirit two years ago, three years ago, four years ago.
35:18It developed spirit on November 5th, where a lot of you were with me.
35:22Some of you weren't, but you quickly became with me.
35:25It's amazing the way a victory can change the minds of some people.
35:29But most of you were with me.
35:31And Pepe, you were fantastic.
35:33He's got a little sugar business.
35:34He has a monopoly — he has a monopoly on the world's sugar.
35:38I would say that's a good business.
35:39I know nothing about sugar, but I would say a monopoly on sugar is pretty good, Pepe.
35:43Thank you both very much.
35:45Thank you, darling, for being — well, thank you both for — yeah, that's right.
35:49He ends up with good real estate.
35:51It starts off with sugar, then all of a sudden he's in the middle of a city.
35:54And he ends up — but he's been great.
35:56And a supporter right from the beginning for years.
35:58And I see you sitting out there, and I appreciate it, and so many others.
36:02So I just want to — I just want to say thank you all.
36:06Simply, behind me, though, is a knockout panel.
36:09This panel, the next time you come here, will be opened up and gone.
36:14No — no problem with any of the surrounding areas.
36:21These — this room will be fixed.
36:23This will be like a cocktail.
36:24The whole floor will be cocktails or pre-briefings or whatever it may be.
36:29Lots of different things.
36:30So the entire floor — so you come in, the entire floor sets up.
36:34We didn't have to do any of that.
36:35Usually, you have to do that.
36:36You need different rooms to go along with the ballroom.
36:38They're already built, and they're built better than anybody would ever build,
36:41because this is beautiful stuff.
36:44It doesn't get better.
36:45So we have this one.
36:46We have another one similar on the other side.
36:48And then we have various meeting rooms and rooms in between
36:51that are served for, you know, different dinners for different people.
36:55And all of this is utilized just the way it is.
36:58It'll be enhanced.
37:00It'll be even more beautiful.
37:02But it'll be — and really brought into the future a little bit
37:06from the standpoint of life and lifespan.
37:09So this will be your area.
37:12And then you get the bell — bing, bing, bing —
37:14and you walk into the ballroom.
37:16And you'll have close to 1,000 seats if you need them.
37:19Or much less.
37:21We have separating panels.
37:22So it could be less or it could be actually even more than that.
37:26So I think it'll be something you'll be very proud of.
37:28And what we're going to do is, when we open up,
37:31you'll be among the first groups — maybe the first group if we —
37:34if I still like you at that time — which I'm sure I will.
37:38But you'll be here — we'll be here.
37:42And you're going to be very happy.
37:44You're going to be very impressed.
37:45We get it done.
37:46So I want to thank everybody very much.
37:48And it's — so many friends in the audience.
37:50And I just want to thank you all.
37:52You're very special people.
37:53You love the country.
37:54You love the White House.
37:55And what you've done is very important.
37:57And we'll have a little dinner.
37:59And we'll ask the press to now go home to your wives, family.
38:03Say hello to them.
38:05If I don't like you, don't even bother.
38:07But you've been great.
38:09Thank you very much.
38:10And, Doug, thank you very much.
38:11And congratulations on a great career.
38:14Thank you, everybody.
38:15Thank you, everybody.
38:16Thank you very much.
Recommended
6:24
Be the first to comment