President Donald Trump told Fox News host Jesse Watters that his controversial White House ballroom project serves as “a monument to myself because no one else will,” according to Watters’ account of a private dinner conversation.

Watters recounted the exchange on Saturday, December 20, 2025, while speaking at Turning Point USA AmericaFest in Phoenix, Arizona. The Fox News personality said Trump showed him ballroom blueprints over dinner and explained his reasoning for the sprawling addition.

“I said, ‘Mr. President, the ballroom is four times the size of the White House,'” Watters told the audience. “He said, ‘Jesse, it’s a monument. I’m building a monument to myself because no one else will.'”

The 90,000-square-foot ballroom under construction on the White House East Wing now carries an estimated price tag of $400 million, significantly higher than the original estimate of $250-300 million. Trump and private donors are funding the project, which is projected for completion in the summer of 2028.

Trump has defended the ballroom as the most important project “since the building of the West Wing” on November 30.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation filed a lawsuit on December 12, 2025, seeking to halt construction. A federal judge denied the Trust’s motion the same day, allowing the project to continue. Carol Quillen, president and CEO of the Trust, expressed concerns about the ruling.

“The American people own these places. And we, the American people, have a right to weigh in when significant changes to them are proposed,” Quillen told CBS News. The judge ordered that a preliminary injunction hearing be scheduled for January.

The construction required demolishing parts of the historic White House grounds, including Jackie Kennedy’s garden. Jack Schlossberg, grandson of the former first lady, criticized the destruction of his grandmother’s rose garden, though he acknowledged that changes to the White House are not inherently problematic.

The ballroom project must still go through review processes with the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts.

The ballroom represents only one of several controversial changes Trump has made to the White House since returning to office. In September, he installed a Presidential Walk of Fame featuring portraits of former presidents.

In December, Trump added partisan plaques under the presidential portraits. While Watters appeared to dismiss the plaques as Trump “having a little fun,” fellow Fox News pundit Brian Kilmeade expressed disapproval of the additions.

Kilmeade stated he was not in favor of displaying or saying anything negative about former presidents, adding that he was not in favor of the trolling approach.

Trump’s pattern of adding his name to landmarks extended beyond the White House. The Kennedy Center board voted to rename the performing arts center to the Trump-Kennedy Center.

However, renaming the Kennedy Center requires congressional approval under federal law, potentially creating a legal obstacle to the change despite the board’s vote.

During his AmericaFest appearance last week, Watters emphasized the massive scale of the project when he first saw the blueprints.

The controversy surrounding the ballroom has generated public backlash despite support from Trump allies. Critics have questioned both the demolition of historic elements of the White House grounds and the opaque nature of the private donor funding arrangement for the $400 million project.