Trump seeks ‘mammoth’ amount for even more White House renovations: report

President Donald Trump seeks hundreds of millions of dollars to renovate the White House residence, according to a new budget request. The administration’s fiscal 2026 proposal includes more than $377 million “for repairs and renovations to the executive residence,” with another $174 million projected for 2027, according to budget documents reported by Politico.That represents “a mammoth 866 percent increase over the $39 million estimated to have been spent in fiscal 2025 on sprucing up the area of the White House where the president lives.”An Office of Management and Budget spokesperson told Politico that the totals include not only work on the residence itself, but also security-related costs, adding the funding is for “a number of renovations, not just the executive residence.” The budget does not specify which projects the money would fund, Politico noted Friday. The MAGA leader's proposal also seeks to classify $350 million of the spending as mandatory, a designation reserved for programs Congress is required to fund, such as Social Security and Medicaid. Trump has made upgrading the White House complex a priority in his second term.“At the center of that effort is the proposed new White House ballroom, a roughly $400 million project that would dramatically expand the complex’s capacity for large-scale events,” Politico reported. “The plan envisions a sprawling addition capable of hosting hundreds of guests at once, replacing the current reliance on temporary tents on the South Lawn for state dinners and major receptions.”The project has been plagued by legal and oversight challenges, and was blocked this week as part of a lawsuit brought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation of the United States.