President Donald Trump snapped at CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Saturday morning over being asked about the price tag of his White House ballroom, the cost of which has increased by at least $100 million since first announced.
“Caitlin Collin’s of Fake News CNN, always Stupid and Nasty, asked me why the new Ballroom was costing more money than originally thought one year ago,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social, spelling Collins’ name incorrectly.
“I said because it is going to be double the size, and the quality of finishes and interiors has been brought to the highest level. Also, the column SPAN has been substantially increased for purposes of viewing. It is actually under budget and ahead of schedule, as my jobs always are. It’s just much bigger and more beautiful than originally planned.”
Trump’s White House ballroom – a 90,000 square-foot luxury event space, was reportedly designed in a “hurried process,” with some design documents apparently showing a staircase leading to nowhere and colliding windows. And, despite Trump’s claim to the contrary, the project is behind schedule, having originally been slated to break ground in September.
Trump has boasted that the project is entirely funded by private donors, some of which had been omitted from the Trump administration’s reports on who and which entities are funding the project, such as the investment company BlackRock – which donated $2.5 million toward the project – or a major investor in TikTok’s parent company ByteDance.
“Interestingly, and seldom reported, there are no taxpayer dollars involved,” Trump continued. “It is being fully paid for by private donations. FAKE NEWS CNN, and the guy who runs the whole corrupt operation that owns it, is one of the worst in the business. Their ratings are so low that they’re not even counted or relevant anymore. MAGA!!!”