President Donald Trump said Friday he has no plans to name his under-construction White House ballroom after himself and dismissed previous reporting that it would be called “The President Donald J. Trump Ballroom” as “fake news.”
Trump told reporters he has not yet “really thought about a name” for the privately-funded project, which many on the left have vehemently condemned over the preceding days.
“I don’t have any plan to call it after myself. That was fake news. Probably going to call it the presidential ballroom or something like that. We haven’t really thought about a name yet,” Trump said on the White House lawn, shortly before boarding Air Force One to embark on his multi-day trip to Asia.
A Friday report from ABC News, which has since been edited, claimed Trump was considering naming the planned White House event space “The President Donald J. Trump Ballroom,” citing anonymous “senior administration officials.”
“We raised a lot. We’ve raised over $350 million. It’s a beautiful room, a big room,” the president added in his pre-flight comments to reporters.
Trump also suggested that some of the money he raised could also be allocated to build his planned arch along the Arlington Memorial Bridge across the Potomac River connecting Washington, D.C. and Arlington, Va. The arch, which the president referred to as “the arc,” would be located in close proximity to the Lincoln Memorial and will be designed to mark the entrance to the nation’s capital.
“The arc is going to be incredible for Washington, D.C., so maybe we’ll use it [the money] for the arc,” Trump said.
Despite the ballroom’s construction being explicitly not funded by taxpayers, Democrats have forcefully denounced the renovation, which has caused the temporary demolition of the White House’s East Wing, which the administration confirmed will eventually be rebuilt and modernized.
The White House did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for additional comment.
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