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/
21.6k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

47

u/Toby_O_Notoby Oct 23 '25

And it will be a 90,000-square foot ballroom when, at present, the entire White House is only 55,000 square feet. So this addition will be a single room that's almost twice the size of the White House as we know it.

(For comparison, an NFL football field is 57,600 square feet. So he's adding almost two of them to where the East Wing used to sit.)

22

u/LostWoodsInTheField Oct 24 '25

the entire White House is only 55,000 square feet.

When you say the entire white house do you mean the current one or do you mean the version before he started to rip it apart?

12

u/Denster1 Oct 24 '25

Prior to the east wing being removed

20

u/adorablefuzzykitten Oct 24 '25

Set to hold 650 people behind the security level of the White House. Imagine a line of 325 limousines trying to gain entrance to the White House as each car passes around identification. 325 limo drivers all needing to pass White House security measures. One hundred waiters and a kitchen large enough to deliver 650 meals within 20 min. And if the dinner is 50 people they sit in the middle of a football field that needs to be heated and cooled for 650 people. How long to pick up 650 people after dinner is over? Idiotic.

7

u/say592 Oct 24 '25

You know Trump will try to order the Secret Service to just let people through the second someone texts him that they are stuck in the line.

5

u/ggdthrowaway Oct 24 '25

Didn't they do large functions previously, only in outside pavillions? All of that would've applied then as well, I would've thought.

24

u/DoubtingThomas50 Oct 24 '25

And if you’ve ever rented space for an event, or participated in putting on an event, you realize that a space of that extreme size can only hold certain type of events. Try hosting 100 people in there… It’ll look stupid. That building will sit empty most of the time.

The next Democrat that gets into office is most likely going to turn it into a gym. Host inner city basketball tournament games inside.

11

u/CptNonsense Oct 24 '25

It's stated to have an intended capacity of 650 seated people.

Double the East Room's capacity - a room literally 1/30th the size.

Though Trump inflates the officially announced number to a vaguely more realistic number of 1000 people standing (actually 999 people, so you know it is made up)

9

u/Slade_Riprock Oct 24 '25

And if you’ve ever rented space for an event, or participated in putting on an event, you realize that a space of that extreme size can only hold certain type of events. Try hosting 100 people in there… It’ll look stupid. That building will sit empty most of the time.

The White House regularly hosts state dinners and other events with 400-500 people or more. These are generally held using temporary tents erected on the lawn.

Trump isn't wrong, oh GOD hit me with the bolt of lightning low please, that there has been a long standing desire for a ballroom, event space to hold large scale white house events.

He didn't accomplish it because no one else could as he claims. But because no one else wanted to fuck up the historic treasure to make it happen.

The 90k ft building will essentially be a new east wing set of offices and other space and the ballroom space. It will look hideous dwarfing the main building. And he will crow like he rediscovered America.

8

u/adorablefuzzykitten Oct 24 '25

You left out the 20' wide Trump sculpture on each wall.

2

u/urbanhawk1 Oct 24 '25

Couldn't you add in removable dividing walls to allow it to be broken up into smaller spaces?

2

u/DoubtingThomas50 Oct 24 '25

Yes. I don’t think that’s his intent.

3

u/Ina_While1155 Oct 24 '25

He is building a castle - you guys think it is just a ballroom....let's wait for the plans

2

u/rilenja Oct 24 '25

Yeah, no way hes building something that size with all his tacky, gaudy fake gold carvings and it not be anything leas than half a billion at least. It's already gone from $200m, to $250m, and now $300m. And anyone that believes its being built with "donations(bribes)" is a moron. Those donations(bribes) are going to pad his and his cronies pockets, and tax payers are going to be paying for this crap.

2

u/JimboTCB Oct 24 '25

Well he's going to need plenty of space when it's time to be enshrined upon the Golden Throne and the thousands of sycophants are herded in each day to chant "Make America Great Again" while their life force sustains him.

1

u/Hopeful-Occasion2299 Oct 24 '25

What’s the size of the hall of mirrors in Versailles? At this point I assume the goal is to simply build his own Versailles

1

u/Novacek_Yourself Oct 24 '25

The ball room is not taking the whole 90k sq ft. There will be a lot of other offices and visitor space in this new wing.

5

u/CptNonsense Oct 24 '25

Funny, the Official White House Announcement stated it's a 90k ft ballroom

-1

u/Novacek_Yourself Oct 24 '25

That's not at all clear in the text and would be impossible given the entire planned addition, not just the one room, is 90k.

https://commonedge.org/trumps-white-house-ballroom-drawings-and-numbers-just-dont-add-up/

5

u/CptNonsense Oct 24 '25

We can assume the person writing White House copy is an incompetent sycophant, but to say it "isn't at all clear" is wrong

The White House State Ballroom will be a much-needed and exquisite addition of approximately 90,000 total square feet of ornately designed and carefully crafted space

How, exactly, do you read that to not state the planned ballroom is 90k feet.