In May 2026, a claim (archived) circulated online that U.S. taxpayers would pay $1 billion for U.S. President Donald Trump's planned White House ballroom.
Trump first announced plans to build a ballroom at the White House in July 2025. Claims about the cost and consequences of the project — including the total demolition of the former White House East Wing — circulated online in the following months.
On Threads, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren wrote, "Trump's gold-encrusted ballroom has gone from costing $200 million funded by shady donors to $1 BILLION from TAXPAYERS—snuck into the ICE bill by Senate Republicans."
The claim about U.S. taxpayers footing the bill for the ballroom also circulated on Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), X (archived), Reddit (archived) and Bluesky (archived). Snopes readers wrote in to ask whether it was true.
We found no credible evidence that the Trump administration would use taxpayer money to build the proposed $200 million ballroom. However, a May 2026 Republican budget proposal suggested $1 billion in government money could help fund the U.S. Secret Service's enhanced security around the structure.
On May 7, 2026, a White House official told Snopes via email, "The Ballroom will still be paid for with the private funds raised. The reconciliation package introduced was funds for DHS and USSS to better secure the WH complex."
A Senate Judiciary Committee spokesperson referred Snopes to a May 6, 2026, letter from the U.S. Secret Service to various Republican leaders that outlined what the Secret Service would spend the suggested $1 billion on, a list that included security for the ballroom but also other seemingly unrelated projects.
At the time of this writing, the claim that taxpayers would pay for the Trump administration's ballroom was unproven. Therefore, we leave this claim without a rating.
Taxpayers could foot ballroom security bill
The National Capital Planning Commission, which provides planning guidance for Washington, D.C. and the surrounding National Capital Region, approved the Trump administration's ballroom plans on April 2, 2026.
Trump and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt have repeatedly said Trump and private donors would pay for the project. The Rapid Response 47 X account, an official account of the Trump administration, wrote (archived) in a July 31, 2025, post that the ballroom would be "fully funded by President Trump and other private donors — not taxpayers." A White House spokesperson repeated this on May 6, 2026.
The White House has always said that the U.S. Secret Service, a federal law enforcement agency, would provide "enhancements and modifications" for the planned ballroom.
The Secret Service is bound to protect the president of the U.S. by law, which includes securing places that the president uses or visits. The cost of that service for the new ballroom, according to the Republican budget proposal published in May 2026, would be $1 billion out of the U.S Treasury's purse.
The Republican budget proposal said the $1 billion could not be used for "non-security elements."
However, in a letter to Republican leaders on May 6, the Secret Service suggested a broader scope for the proposed funds than what appeared in the Republican budget proposal. According to the Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin and Secret Service Director Sean Curran, the service would use the money to fulfill above and below ground security requirements for the ballroom project.
In addition, the service would also spend the money on more general projects like "Increased Protection for Protectees," "Training and Training Facilities Improvements," countering evolving threats and technology and guarding "Events of National Significance." According to Mullin and Curran's letter, these latter four projects appeared much wider in scope than the ballroom project.
It was unclear how the service would divide the funds, should they be approved.
Because federal revenue that the U.S. Treasury collects is largely generated through individual and corporate income taxes, at least some of the proposed funding would likely be comprised of taxpayer money.
Tracking Trump's ballroom plans
Karoline Leavitt and the White House announced the ballroom project on July 31, 2025. According to the White House statement, the room would sit near the current East Wing and seat 650 people — more than three times as many as the former East Room, which seated 200 people. The White House statement described the new ballroom as an "exquisite addition of approximately 90,000 total square feet of ornately designed and carefully crafted space."
Trump himself also spoke about the ballroom while signing an executive order on July 31 (video time code 21:46, our emphasis):
Reporter: Mr. President, can you talk about your plans for the new ballroom that was announced today? The $200 million, that's going to be paid for by yourself —
Trump: By me, yeah.
Reporter: — private donations?
Trump: It's a private thing, yeah, I'll do it and we'll probably have some donors or whatever, but it's about $200 million. We've been planning it for a long time, they've wanted a ballroom at the White House for more than 150 years but there's never been a president that was good at ballrooms. (unintelligible) really good. In fact, I looked at one we just built in Turnberry in Scotland and it's incredible. We're good at building, I'm good at building things and we'll get it built quickly and on time, it'll be beautiful, top of the line.
Nearly two months earlier, on June 6, 2025, Trump posted on his social media network Truth Social, "Just inspected the site of the new Ballroom that will be built, compliments of a man known as Donald J. Trump, at the White House."
Days before the White House announcement, Trump teased the idea while meeting with Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, at his Trump Turnberry resort in Scotland (which, he said, had recently had its own ballroom fitted). Trump said (video time code 1:43), "We're building a great ballroom at the White House. The White House has wanted a ballroom for 150 years, but they never had a real estate person, you know, nobody, no president knew how to build a ballroom." Trump did not mention the financing of the project while speaking at Turnberry.
Trump has floated ideas for a ballroom at the White House since at least 2010, according to former U.S. President Barack Obama's senior adviser David Axelrod. According to Axelrod, Trump offered to build "a ballroom you can assemble and take apart" in 2010.
Trump recounted the encounter to ABC News in 2011, according to a New York Post article. At that time, Trump reportedly priced the project at $100 million, half the 2025 ballroom estimate.
The idea surfaced again in 2016, when Obama's press secretary Josh Earnest laughed off (video time code 36:53) another Trump offer of a ballroom as "not something that was at all seriously considered."
"I'm not sure that it would be appropriate to have a shiny gold Trump sign on any part of the White House," Earnest said.
The White House's July 2025 announcement included illustrations of the proposed exterior and interior of the White House State Ballroom by McCrery Architects. The illustrations showed plans for a gold-accented dining room, though they did not include any gold Trump signs.