Trump pauses oil exec summit to peek at White House ballroom's progress
President Donald Trump briefly paused his meeting with nearly two dozen oil executives Friday afternoon to walk over to a window at the White House to check out updates on...
By Fox News · Fox News
President Donald Trump briefly paused his meeting with nearly two dozen oil executives Friday afternoon to walk over to a window at the White House to check out updates on the ballroom's construction. "Today I'm delighted to welcome almost two dozen of the biggest and most respected oil and gas executives in the world to the White House," he said. "It's an honor to be with them. We have many others that were not able to get in. I said, ‘If we had a ballroom, we’d have over a thousand people.'" "I never knew you had that many people in your industry. But, here we are. And if you're in fact, if you look, come to think of it. Well, I gotta look at this myself," Trump said as he got up from his chair to peek out of a window in the East Room, looking out to where the upcoming ballroom is under construction. PRESIDENT TRUMP SAYS THERE WON'T BE A 'SECOND WAVE OF ATTACKS' AGAINST VENEZUELA DUE TO THEIR 'COOPERATION' "Wow. What a, what a view. This is the door to the ballroom," he continued. Trump remarked that it was an "unusual time to look" out in the ballroom, which earned chuckles, and then invited the "fake news" to check out the progress. Trump announced in October 2025 that construction had begun on the ballroom, following months of the president floating the planned project to modernize the White House . The project does not cost taxpayers and is privately funded, the White House reported. US MAY BE INVOLVED IN VENEZUELA FOR YEARS, TRUMP SAYS Photos of the demolition crew dismantling the East Wing's facade circulated on social media and in news reports back in October 2025, sparking outrage from Democrats and other Trump critics who argued the president was "destroying" the White House. Trump continued Friday that the construction is ahead of schedule. The White House said the ballroom will be "completed long before the end of President Trump's term" in 2029. "We're ahead of schedule in the ballroom and under budget. It's going to be, I don't think they'll be anyth…