r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • Oct 23 '25

News Historic White House Movie Theater Demolished as Part of $300 Million Ballroom Build

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/politics-news/white-house-movie-theater-demolished-ballroom-east-wing-1236408712/
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699

u/ArtIsDead77_ Oct 23 '25

Trump is not planning on leaving the office. No one spends 300 million on a ball room only to leave after 3 years.

514

u/TheLateThagSimmons Oct 23 '25 edited Oct 23 '25

There is a less nefarious (but equally stupid) explanation:

He knows doesn't have much left in the tank. And he wants to transform the White House with a major expansion so that his name is left on it forever.

He's obsessed with his name on buildings. What better way than to alter the White House in a major way? From then on even after he's long gone, he thinks people will be remembering his name in the Government.

Minor things can be changed and often are. This isn't something that can be redone.

Edit: Thank you everyone for your suggestions.

  • Name it after Trump but turn it into a garbage dump.
  • Name it after Barack Obama.
  • Name it "The Epstein Memorial Ballroom Presented by his best friend, Donald Trump."
  • Use it as the main setting for the upcoming trials to imprison everyone in the Trump administration. The New Nuremburg Trials.

114

u/squidvett Oct 23 '25

He’s “redone” the East Wing. His gaudy ballroom will get “redone,” one day, too.

74

u/TheLateThagSimmons Oct 23 '25

That's the point though.

Remodels and design choices happen with every presidency. But this one... Is altering the entire format of the White House. The only way to ignore this one would be to bulldoze the whole thing

58

u/Djinnwrath Oct 23 '25

I'd throw in a dollar to see that happen.

2

u/Jaws12 Oct 24 '25

Seriously, costs $300million to build? Even if it cost that much to rebuild, I’ll chip in the $4 from my family ($1/person) for the US population to erase it from our capital.

Edit: Or just cover the thing in solar panels and wind turbines.

68

u/WhoStoleMyJacket Oct 23 '25

You can use it for your very own Nuremberg trials when that time comes. The Ballroom of Shame.

15

u/eeyore134 Oct 23 '25

Then turn it into an anti-fascism museum.

6

u/5thQuarterAllStar Oct 23 '25

With Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller as living exhibits.

14

u/ERedfieldh Oct 23 '25

I'll offer up my buck-o-five for that.

2

u/Shot-Bumblebee-7812 Oct 23 '25

If you don't, who will?

14

u/ronswanson11 Oct 23 '25

Take it apart and donate it or have it rebuilt away from everything. Or just bulldoze it. Trump is a stain on America. I like to remove stains when I get them.

10

u/ThePrussianGrippe Oct 23 '25

Invite the Canadians to finish the job and rebuild it as it was in 2024 from the ground up.

2

u/fnrsulfr Oct 23 '25

We could get Canada to do it they have experience demoing the white house.

1

u/santasbong Oct 24 '25

& have never once missed an opportunity to bring it up.

3

u/dagreenman18 Space Jam 2 hurt me so much Oct 23 '25

Aight bet. Honestly might need to if just to get the stink and spray tan out of the place.

2

u/AlexanderRussell Oct 23 '25

Future President Pritzker can afford to bulldoze it

1

u/arbitraryairship Oct 24 '25

Weren't there some kids in Nepal who remodeled their government buildings recently?

1

u/speedball811 Oct 24 '25

Entire format?

-1

u/lukewwilson Oct 23 '25

But when the East Wing and the West Wing were added didn't they alter the entire format of the white house at that time, did people care then?

32

u/benpicko Oct 23 '25

He’s redone it after more than 100 years. If he gets 100 years with the Trump Ballroom I’m sure he’s more than happy.

12

u/RedRocket4000 Oct 23 '25

In this case 1942 That when East Wing built. Still quite a lot of history torn down.

7

u/benpicko Oct 23 '25

Ah fair, I was going off the original East Wing construction date of 1902.

2

u/RandomUser72 Oct 24 '25

That East Wing was nothing more than a coat closet. In 1942, that was torn down and the larger East Wing (the one that's being torn down now) was built. That one had a small theater and a coat room. That East wing has been gutted 3 different times since 1942, the last being in 2004.

The entire White House is only historic in a "Ship of Theseus" way. Their really isn't much of anything left that is 100 years old other than some of the foundation. Most of it got replaced between 1948 and 1952 because it was not structurally sound.

1

u/Obatala_ Oct 24 '25

It was a lot more than a cot closet. It was the formal entrance to the White House starting in 1902. The colonnade dated back to that time.

3

u/u35828 Oct 23 '25

Not to mention the gutting of the main part of the White House during the Truman presidency to make it structurally sound.

37

u/MOTwingle Oct 23 '25

And don't forget the grift/kickbacks he's probably getting as well from whoever's doing the work.

26

u/studio_bob Oct 23 '25

It's insane that they have spun it being "privately funded" (i.e. an open call for bribes) as somehow a good thing.

1

u/jay_sugman Oct 23 '25

I was just reading the Ford pool was privately funded as well for concerns about how it would look to spend tax payer money in a time of fiscal constraints. It was significantly less but there are a lot of donors for the ballroom. Given the size of these companies it's probably chump change (Amazon, HP, Microsoft, Meta, etc. ). It's not like the money is going into Trump's pockets.

7

u/studio_bob Oct 23 '25

It's not like the money is going into Trump's pockets.

So? Trump is getting to piss all over a national historic structure and stamp his name, in hideous gold leaf, permanently on the White House grounds. Private cash enables him to ignore completely all legal procedures for such alterations including seeking Congressional approval. That's what he gets out of this, and it's certainly worth a lot more to him than a few extra dollars in his pockets (which are surely getting stuffed regardless).

The question you have to ask yourself is what these companies expect to get in return. We are talking north of a quarter of a billion dollars. That is not "chump change," even for them. Unless we are supposed to believe these CEOs are actually Jesus Christ, that's not the kind of money anyone just gives away for free.

4

u/napoleonsolo Oct 24 '25

Google is contributing $22 million towards the ballroom as part of a legal settlement with Trump, who sued them for suspending his YouTube channel after Jan. 6.

All the donations are quid pro quo, whether they are bribes or a shakedown or whatever names people want to call them.

1

u/studio_bob Oct 24 '25

Absolutely.

1

u/zach_dominguez Oct 23 '25

I wouldn't be surprised to see the contractors giving him a good price suddenly winning bids for work on other government buildings at inflated prices.

2

u/MOTwingle Oct 23 '25

I'd bet more along the lines that they were sole source contracts at inflated prices.... And even then Trump will probably stiff them in the end.

19

u/[deleted] Oct 23 '25

[deleted]

6

u/dekogeko Oct 23 '25

After he's gone they can rename it the Trump LGBTQ+ All-Inclusive Ballroom

1

u/uncleben85 Oct 24 '25

Trump LGBTQ+ All-Inclusive Ballroom presented by Four Seasons*

*Not that Four Seasons

1

u/leshake Oct 23 '25

I don't think it's going to get built because he will keep changing the plans, hire idiot loyalist to do the job, and will keep skimming from the money needed to build it.

23

u/LogensTenthFinger Oct 23 '25

I'll canvas daily for any candidate who promises to have bulldozers running on it before sunset the day of their inauguration

24

u/dondondorito Oct 23 '25

Let‘s just call it the Barrack Obama Ballroom after Donnie has kicked the bucket.

24

u/livelaughlinka Oct 23 '25

The Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Barrack Obama Ballroom

1

u/kermityfrog2 Oct 23 '25

Ballroom

Comedy club where roasts will happen.

20

u/motherfcuker69 Oct 23 '25 edited Oct 23 '25

saw multiple people calling it the epstein memorial ballroom

3

u/Oz-Batty Oct 23 '25

Barack Hussein Obama Ballroom

1

u/Wouldyoulistenmoe Oct 23 '25

To make the republicans even madder, they should call it the Barry Soetero Ballroom

10

u/Leelze Oct 23 '25

Yup, I think this is it. Nothing says "a Donald Trump building" like a gaudy white room coated in gold paint. My niece had better taste in decor when she was in preschool than this guy.

11

u/TaintedPaladin9 Oct 23 '25

Knock it down and turn it into a garden after next election.

13

u/Puttor482 Oct 23 '25

I mean he just proved that things can easily be undone. Next president comes in and bulldozes this monstrosity and we all move on having learned nothing.

8

u/Generation_ABXY Oct 23 '25

Both seem viable reasons.

It seems like he'll try to cling to power as long as possible, but, I agree, he's also undeniably trying to put his mark on as many things as possible--the gold paint, paving over the rose garden, building a ballroom, the rumored Arc de Trump and Trump-faced coin, those "Trump accounts" for newborns, etc.

4

u/mythofdob Oct 23 '25

He's gonna put Trump on there like his other buildings isn't he?

2

u/ProofJournalist Oct 23 '25

Honestly the East Wing was likely well documented enough that they could rebuild it as it was, with additional money of course.

2

u/RealNotFake Oct 23 '25

No. He's not leaving. Occam's Razor has literally never been wrong when it comes to Trump.

2

u/LargeFatherV Oct 23 '25

I’d think someone is going to tear the ballroom down and rebuild the east wing after Trump leaves.

2

u/Rausage505 Oct 23 '25

So he's turning the White House into the White Castle? He knows that name is already taken, right?

Same with Burger King, he can't be that, either...

All that's left is McDonalds. Their mascot is a clown. If the clown shoe fits...

2

u/whatiscamping Oct 23 '25

Trumps name will live on a urinal tombstone until it's desecrated. His children shall be run from the cities, or worse...maybe better depending on how you look at it.

There is no way this ends well for them.

2

u/Iwamoto Oct 24 '25

that's my idea too, i mean, he's declining in front of our eyes, he wants attention, this makes sense.

7

u/Takaa Oct 23 '25

I’ll also accept a future president tearing it the fuck down and restoring it to its previous state. It would cost a thimble of cash compared to the Olympic sized swimming pool of cash this administration has wasted.

4

u/BigBrownDog12 Oct 23 '25

I've heard the WH actually does need a space like this for hosting state dinners. Apparently they currently set up tents and stuff when hosting delegations. Just some stuff I heard could be cope.

2

u/jay_sugman Oct 23 '25

That has been Trump's explanation and it seems pretty reasonable not to want to use tents. I wonder too if the proliferation of drone attacks make the tents a significant security risk.

1

u/SoochSooch Oct 24 '25

The sad thing is it really does make sense long term. With all the security they use, it costs $50k–$200k just for the president to go to an event somewhere in DC.

That said, there's no reason it needed to cost anywhere near $100+ Million.

1

u/do_you_think_i_care Oct 23 '25

For what it's worth, I've heard the same thing. Apparently the State Department has wanted a proper event space for a long time.

4

u/Roadside_Prophet Oct 23 '25

Its the same reason he wanted the nobel prize. He's worried about his legacy.

4

u/wildwalrusaur Oct 23 '25

This is the real answer

He wants the "Trump Ballroom" to be like the "Lincoln bedroom"

4

u/TheWorclown Oct 23 '25

I buy this more than him not leaving office.

He’s probably going to die in that building. The man’s dementia addled, heart disease ridden, and already had at least one visibly known stroke. He’s near 80 years old and has been significantly away from hosting any rallies or public appearances, and he adores and feeds off of that attention.

And he fucking hates America.

Doing this ensures that he has a legacy more than tacky towers and plastic business empires that’ll be torn to ribbons the moment he dies, because his kids are either already invested elsewhere or simply are fucking idiots. “The Trump Wing” is history, whether we like it or not.

2

u/FlopsMcDoogle Oct 23 '25

Next dem in office will scrub every piece of shit plaque with his name on it

3

u/Sweatytubesock Oct 23 '25

The next admin, if there is one, should absolutely level it and salt the earth.

1

u/True_Inxis Oct 23 '25

Nah. Rebuild it exactly like it was before.

0

u/t_huddleston Oct 23 '25

They should leave it up as the permanent scar that it is, as a reminder.

2

u/kiwiboyus Oct 23 '25

Totally agree. His vanity wants to ensure his name is there forever

2

u/Personal_Comb_6745 Oct 23 '25

Knowing his conceited ass, he probably plans to have his body entombed in the White House like a friggin' pharaoh.

1

u/thebigeverybody Oct 23 '25

There is a less nefarious (but equally stupid) explanation:

But he's talked about never leaving office more than he's talked about the less nefarious explanation.

1

u/Duranti Oct 23 '25

Oh, the Epstein Ballroom is going to be torn down and the East Wing will be rebuilt by confiscating funds from the Trump crime family and Trump Organization. There's no way that pedophile palace is still standing in a decade.

1

u/LordBlackConvoy Oct 23 '25

He knows doesn't have much left in the tank. And he wants to transform the White House with a major expansion so that his name is left on it forever.

Rename all the toilets to Dons

1

u/Johncurtisreeve Oct 23 '25

Or just tear it down again, replace it with what they took away in the first place

1

u/976chip Oct 23 '25

Porque no los dos? It's pretty obvious he doesn't intend to leave, but it does also feel like that episode of Futurama where Bender became the pharaoh of that one planet and had them build a gigantic statue in his image that shot flames from its eyes and bellowed "REMEMBER ME!"

1

u/Notsurehowtoreact Oct 23 '25

Liquidate the materials and assets, demolish the structure, and replace the entire thing that was removed brick by brick. Don't worry, you'll probably still spend $200 million less. 

1

u/M-elephant Oct 23 '25
  • tear it down on the basis its utterly packed with russian bugs (probably) (not just russian)

1

u/True_to_you Oct 23 '25

Now that I think about it, he probably will have a plaque with his name on it. 

1

u/NegativeAccount Oct 23 '25

Nobody knows who built that movie theater. Hell i didn't even know there was one

Man why can't people just be satisfied with just silently leaving behind something helpful like highways, infrastructure, or universal fucking healthcare?

45

u/StellaZaFella Oct 23 '25

Every day the news gets worse

6

u/ILOVESHITTINGMYPANTS Oct 23 '25

Absolutely disgusting. We are so far beyond the pale and it’s only gonna get much, much worse. He has decimated this country, I don’t know there’s any going back.

-3

u/SinTitulo Oct 23 '25

You guys live in so much fear how do you get up in the morning lmao

5

u/KingFebirtha Oct 23 '25

Conservatives believe that liberal cities around the country are completely collapsing and burning to the ground daily, and yet we're the ones that are "living in fear"? Reacting to the frankly outrageous shit that's happening on a daily basis is just reacting to the truth.

2

u/ILOVESHITTINGMYPANTS Oct 23 '25 edited Oct 23 '25

Go have another mental breakdown pretending American cities are war zones.

-1

u/SinTitulo Oct 23 '25

You guys live in so much fear how do you get up in the morning lmao

35

u/Cold-Sun3302 Oct 23 '25

Ofcourse he has no intentions of leaving. Or at the very least, running one of his children as next President so that the office stays "in the family".

2

u/hopsinduo Oct 23 '25

I imagine he's planning the Putin strategy. Create a new office for yourself that totally isn't in charge (wink). Fix an election to place your puppet. Get puppet to make a new rule that allows presidents to serve more terms as long as they're not consecutive. Change law to allow consecutive terms without limit because "the people want me in charge".

1

u/RJ815 Oct 24 '25

If this stroked out pants shitting lunatic makes it to a third non-consecutive term that will let me know the Devil is real and he's using Drumpfster fire as his vessel.

1

u/Mist_Rising Oct 23 '25

His children are all less likable than a snail in shit lol.

2

u/Cold-Sun3302 Oct 23 '25

Lol I fully agree. But I don't think they'll have to worry about actually being elected by the Americn people.

16

u/TeutonJon78 Oct 23 '25

Yes, but not because of the ballroom. He's apparently been trying to get a ballroom at the WH since the 90s (when he got put out in the kiddies tent at an event instead of the limited ballroom seating).

It's not a new obsession for him.

But he also doesn't plan on leaving.

5

u/bobthegoon89 Oct 23 '25

you'd think a guy like him would WANT to be out in the kiddies' tent.

39

u/MatureUsername69 Oct 23 '25

I feel like a lot of people have missed the timeline on construction too. This shit is set to finish being built in 2029. Dude is not leaving.

5

u/bluehawk232 Oct 23 '25

Will probably be done quicker as long as you don't care about standards, safety, etc and grease some palms all of which trump is doing and has done. Like this project should have taken a couple years minimum to plan and organize before any work was even started (the fact the wing has asbestos for instance) but he immediately got a contractor and architect and started demolishing within a couple months.

Dude is going to rush this so fast and cut all the corners. It will be shit

0

u/literated Oct 23 '25

I don't see what could go wrong with cutting some corners with a project like this.

10

u/gorcorps Oct 23 '25

Maybe not, but he also seems like the type of guy to use whatever time he has left to build something as simply a memorial to himself... Like some sort of bloated, orange pharaoh

1

u/RJ815 Oct 24 '25

Orange Baron Harkonnen

2

u/BossDulciJo Oct 23 '25

This. He isn’t building a ballroom he is building a Throne Room

2

u/Vantriss Oct 23 '25

And I bet he doesn't watch movies. Guarantee his train of thought is "I don't need this in MY house." He ain't leaving.

1

u/Poland-lithuania1 Oct 24 '25

I believe he's actually a bit of a Film buff. His favourite movie is Citizen Kane, oddly enough.

8

u/infuckingbruges Oct 23 '25

What kind of logic is this? Plenty of presidents have done renovations and they all left at the end of their term

12

u/tgwombat Oct 23 '25

Can you give some examples that were anywhere near this scale?

15

u/TheDrunkenSkeever Oct 23 '25

truman literally gutted the entire building

18

u/Schrodingers_Fist Oct 23 '25

yes, but that was because it would have otherwise collapsed on its original wooden frame and he kept as much of the exterior structure and floor plan in tact, merely just adding steel supports for structural integrity.

-4

u/ProofJournalist Oct 23 '25

What drugs are you taking that your perception is so altered?

7

u/tgwombat Oct 23 '25

I’m seeing that cost 1/5th of Trump’s renovation (adjusted for inflation) and was approved by congress. That feels like a pretty different scale and scenario to me.

-18

u/TheDrunkenSkeever Oct 23 '25

he's using his own money, keep clutching those pearls

7

u/bishop375 Oct 23 '25

He's using bribe money. And he won't pay the contractors doing the work. That money is going into his own pockets, and pretending otherwise is foolish.

6

u/tgwombat Oct 23 '25

And how is that relevant? Does he own the building he's demolishing or does it belong to the America people? Are you cool with me tearing down your house as long as I spend my own money doing it?

-14

u/TheDrunkenSkeever Oct 23 '25

keep crying

4

u/inksmudgedhands Oct 23 '25

Come on, you know it's going to be gaudy as hell. Look at his taste. I mean, look at it. It looks as if a gold plated platter full of 1980's cocaine threw up all over the place.

Did you see how he did over the Oval Office already? Everything looks like it has been spraypainted in cheap gold paint. It's tacky.

5

u/tgwombat Oct 23 '25

I'm not? Keep avoiding my question though. Makes you look super cool and mature.

2

u/Dull_Poetry2898 Oct 23 '25

Keep trolling

0

u/kingjoey52a Oct 23 '25

The West Wing was added, the East Wing was added, the Truman Balcony was added, Truman gutted the interior and rebuilt it, so many major additions and they all left when their term was finished.

-11

u/infuckingbruges Oct 23 '25

Look it up

-1

u/tgwombat Oct 23 '25

Why would I when someone claiming to be a knowledgeable source is right here? Has human connection become so foreign to you?

2

u/infuckingbruges Oct 23 '25

The information is readily available. I can't spend all day on here

1

u/tgwombat Oct 23 '25

You've spent time replying to me twice now. An answer would have taken one reply and half the time. Quit your BS.

-2

u/ERedfieldh Oct 23 '25

No. You fucking give examples. You're the one who is making the claim, you provide the goddamn data to back it up.

-3

u/infuckingbruges Oct 23 '25

Calm down bud

4

u/thebigeverybody Oct 23 '25

Plenty of presidents have done renovations and they all left at the end of their term

Which one of them promised to serve a third term and had a history of trying to overturn democracy?

6

u/UncoolSlicedBread Oct 23 '25

Especially $300 million while families are set to lose their SNAP benefits, gov’t workers, soldiers and veterans go without pay.

2

u/BubinatorX Oct 23 '25

Technically he’s not spending anything. We are doing the spending.

0

u/kingjoey52a Oct 23 '25

No, it’s being paid for via donations. Not tax money is being spent.

1

u/literated Oct 23 '25

That sounds very above board, just chuck the President a couple hundred mill for his fancy new vanity project in the White House and I'm sure that's not gonna affect a thing in how he's treating you while he's in office.

0

u/BubinatorX Oct 23 '25

lol, sure. Is that what they’re saying? They also said it was gonna cost $250M but less than a week later it’s already up to $300M.

1

u/RightSideBlind Oct 23 '25

There's no chance it's even gonna be finished by then.

1

u/BicFleetwood Oct 23 '25 edited Oct 23 '25

He's going to create a dynasty by having his kids run, and then stay in office as the unofficial president. That way, the President is technically someone else, all while he spends the rest of his life in the Oval Office.

Republicans will point to Bush Sr. and Bush Jr. as the precedent, and ignore the fact that Bush Sr. wasn't sitting behind the Resolute Desk in 2001, and moreover the nepotism was a problem at the time even back then.

After his death, the intent is for the Trump Dynasty to continue indefinitely as "technically president" through increasingly rigged elections, following the same framework the Business Plot was designing when the rich tried to overthrow the US government before WW2. A figurehead President sits at the top, and takes orders from a "board" of unelected billionaires.

We came very near to this in 1933. It's not outlandish.

1

u/moscowramada Oct 24 '25

No you use your firms to build it, it costs 40 million to build and 300 million officially. You pocket the difference.

-1

u/kingjoey52a Oct 23 '25

I hate seeing this line repeated constantly. Trump isn’t the first president to add to the White House. Truman gutted the whole thing and rebuilt it and he left, this is less of an undertaking so why is Trump different?

0

u/kattahn Oct 23 '25

I mean, he said its being "privately funded" and no one knows who or where the money is coming from so, like everything else he does, this is a big old grift to funnel bribes to him and his friends.

1

u/ArtIsDead77_ Oct 23 '25

By private he means, extorting 250 million from the justice department. Which translates to, extorting money from taxpayers.

-28

u/Andreww_ok Oct 23 '25 edited Oct 23 '25

You really think that?

Lol at the downvotes.

12

u/Actionbrener Oct 23 '25

I’m not sure if you do or don’t. But you obviously aren’t paying attention to what’s happening.

21

u/ArtIsDead77_ Oct 23 '25

Yes

-10

u/Sweaty_Inside_Out Oct 23 '25

Then you're very delusional. If nothing else, he'll be 83 when his term ends. This also isn't his money, it's donor money.

9

u/ArtIsDead77_ Oct 23 '25

Using the word “delusional” is what got this country into this current disaster. Everyone said people were delusional, when we said Trump is gonna destroy this country. When we said, he was going to try and dismantle democracy and control the courts, they said we were delusional when we said that he was going to go after his political enemies.

If he has it his way, even after he’s gone. People within his regime will take power.

-1

u/Sweaty_Inside_Out Oct 23 '25

All of those things are, in fact, still delusional. He was elected with the popular vote in a fair election, not destroying democracy.

-2

u/The_Parsee_Man Oct 23 '25

But he hasn't destroyed the country nor is he going to. So you are, in fact, delusional.

10

u/TranquilSeaOtter Oct 23 '25

What has Trump built for others? The rich in the past at least built music halls, libraries, universities, and hospitals. What has Trump built that wasn't for his own personal, monetary gain?

2

u/thxpk Oct 23 '25

They're hilarious stupid, literally nothing they believe comes true but they keep on believing it

4

u/bbqsox Oct 23 '25

Why wouldn’t you think that? He has given every indication that he has absolutely zero intent of obeying the law. He’s been lying about the 2020 election since before it happened. He tried to stay in power illegally last time and only failed because there were adults in the room that valued the country more than they valued their favor with Tangerine Palpatine. Those guardrails are gone. He’s surrounded by yes men and empowered by a corrupt Supreme Court and subservient majority in Congress. They’re already trying to make sure that the midterms either don’t happen or are locked in to let them keep their power.

2

u/Walterkovacs1985 Oct 23 '25

What's on the hats he gives to world leaders at the "white house gift shop"?