WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump hosted dozens of wealthy spenders for a dinner on Wednesday in exchange for what he called the “tremendous amounts of money” they agreed to donate to construct a $200 million ballroom addition to the White House, a project that has sparked concerns from ethics watchdogs.
“We have a lot of legends in the room tonight, and that’s why we’re here to celebrate you, because you gave,” Trump said in the East Room. “They wanted to have a ballroom, and it never happened because they didn’t have a real estate person.”
More than three dozen corporate executives and wealthy businesspeople attended the dinner, where Trump expressed gratitude for their opening their checkbooks for his long-desired state ballroom. Representatives from companies including Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft and Lockheed Martin were in attendance.
So were wealthy supporters of Trump, like Harold G. Hamm, a billionaire oil and gas executive who bankrolled Trump’s 2024 campaign and stands to benefit from his energy policies. Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, who run the crypto exchange Gemini and have contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to a pro-Trump political action committee called MAGA Inc., were also there.
The building of a 90,000-square-foot ballroom has raised a number of questions about potential conflicts of interests. White House officials have said Trump and other donors would pay for the renovations but have provided few specific details.
Richard W. Painter, who served as the chief ethics lawyer in the White House Counsel’s Office under President George W. Bush, said in an interview that Trump’s dinner for the corporate executives “shows what the ballroom is really all about: pay to play.”
“Getting an invitation to the White House to a dinner because they’re contributing to the construction of this project,” Painter said. “This is payment for access, not just to the grounds of the White House but access to the president of the United States.”
Trump and his aides have maintained that the additional space to host foreign dignitaries and other guests of the White House is urgently needed. In the past, the White House has often hosted large crowds under a tent on the South Lawn.
“The American presidents need to be able to showcase our country,” Trump said Wednesday night.
In a meandering speech that shifted from details of the ballroom — bulletproof windows and a capacity of 999 people, among them — to a description of his foreign policy agenda, Trump told the audience that he expected the project to be completed under budget. He also suggested that some attendees had offered to pay more than $20 million for the ballroom.
“So many of you have been really, really generous,” Trump said. “I mean, a couple of you, I was sitting here and saying, ‘Sir, would $25 million be appropriate?’ They said, ‘I’ll take it.’”
Trump also showed corporate executives models of a new arch that is planned for near Arlington National Cemetery.
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