Overview
- The presidential motorcade stopped at a Lake Worth shopping center at 9:46 a.m., where Trump shopped at Arc Stone & Tile and bought marble and onyx for the ballroom at his own expense before heading to his golf club.
- The planned addition is roughly 90,000 square feet, with costs now cited up to about $400 million that Trump says will come from private donations and his personal contribution.
- The East Wing was demolished in October to clear the site, drawing public outcry and legal challenges that led a judge to require formal consultations with federal planning commissions.
- White House officials plan to present designs to the National Capital Planning Commission on January 8, followed by a session with the Commission of Fine Arts, with a working timeline that targets construction starting this spring and finishing by mid-2028.
- Shalom Baranes has been hired as lead architect with original lead James McCrery II remaining as a consultant, and Trump appointed White House staff secretary Will Scharf to lead the National Capital Planning Commission.