Skip to content

Transcript: Trump Remarks Following The Democratic Midterm Victory

A day after Democrats’ midterm victory, President Donald Trump joined construction workers at the White House ballroom for the final beam signing. He talked up the ballroom’s bulletproof and drone-proof design, his projects around Washington DC and the drop in crime in the capital. Taking questions from reporters, he responded to Vice President JD Vance’s claim that the Iran war cost Republicans the midterms, brushed off talk of impeachment and defended Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Opening Remarks on the White House Ballroom

DONALD TRUMP: Well, I just want to thank everybody for being here. This has been a structure the likes of which has never been seen anywhere, actually. The most incredible part, nobody will understand that, but is what’s underneath it. That’s probably by far the most difficult. This is the easy part.

This is the part that people underground, they don’t see, but that’s the most difficult part. And we did it in record time. We’re ahead of schedule. We’re under budget. The whole thing is a miracle, and it’s all because of you.

I say to the media, these are all our construction people. We had over five… We have over 500 people in the room, and this will be the ballroom. Right here is the ballroom. Over here, you’re going to have magnificent columns on this side, outside, exterior columns, very much like the Supreme Court.

They’re actually taller and they’re even more magnificent. They’re fabricated now. They’re being carved out of beautiful limestone. And there’ll be Corinthian, the Corinthian design, which is considered the crème de la crème, and they’ll be up… When will they be coming, you think?

When?

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Next week.

DONALD TRUMP: Oh, you’re going to start next… Woah. That’s good.

That’s way ahead, That’s good. You’re doing good. Thank you. Thank you, Bo. Has Bo, has he done a good job?

And for the media, you can see the… That’ll be essentially a glass… Beautiful glass tube coming into the ballroom right from the East side of the White House using the current ballroom, which is a tiny room and holds 90 people. Using the current room for cocktails, etcetera, etcetera. So you’ll have tremendous…

It’s just a tremendous structure. It’s a structure the likes of which has never been done. The ceilings are over 50 feet high. That’s like a five story building, and I don’t think there’s any ballroom. I doubt there’s a ballroom in the country with a 50 foot ceiling, and you’ll be able to have dinners for as many people as you want.

We had King Charles here and we could… We were very restricted. Said, “Could we have about 350 of our people?” He said, “We don’t hold three fifty. We hold about 98.”

So having three fifty is a little tough. But we had President Xi of China, and he left two weeks ago, and he was amazed when he looked at the structure. He studied it with us. And he also found the helipad done by you guys also indirectly, but the helipad’s been amazing. People are…

It’s a great thing of beauty. And when you fly over the White House and you see it… In fact, it’s so good I never even got sued because normally I get sued. “Don’t build it. Don’t build it.”

They sue me all the time. And then we’re doing the Arc, the beautiful… Like the Arc de Triomphe, but better, more beautiful, actually. Much more beautiful.

Projects Across Washington DC

And as you know, we’re doing the National Garden of American Heroes, which will be something beautiful. And we’re upgrading the trash island. You know what trash island is? It’s the golf course. They have a terrible golf course.

We have a problem with the judge. She wants it to stay at terrible golf course, but I don’t think that’ll be allowed to happen. And that’ll be world… We’ll have US Opens. It’s open to the public.

It’ll be open to the public. It’ll be beautiful. And, essentially, we’ve beautified Washington DC with 83 monuments, statues, etcetera. Right, Doug? 83.

We just opened up the reflecting pool two days ago, and it’s magnificent. First time in… Well, let’s see. It opened in 1922, and it never worked. Ever worked.

It always leaked, but now it’s not leaking. We had vandals that did a lot of damage, actually. Real scum, but it’s now open and looks beautiful. And it’s going to be with us a long time, but we did a total of 83 monuments and statues and fountains. Many had graffiti in them for fifty years.

For the most part, I would say, Doug, maybe none of them worked in all of Washington. And we’ve beautified it. We’ve got rid of the homeless encampments where they took over all your parks, and we’re in the process of redoing all of the grass, brand new grass, everything. And so it’ll be graffiti. You see that building right over there?

It had graffiti all over it. Was a disgrace. We got rid of it. It was not easy to do. When you have limestone, especially, sort of sinks in a little bit.

Oh, not good. Right? When you have limestone, when you have granite, it’s a lot easier. But… So this is a special structure.

Signing the Final Beam

It’s going to be not only one of the biggest, but it’ll be the most beautiful ballroom, I think, anywhere in the world. And they’ve been trying to get it for a hundred and fifty years. And for the media, these are the people that built it. This is about 525 people, and they really worked hard. Steel workers, the steel is just almost being finished.

As I understand it, this would be a last piece of steel. Everybody in the room signed it. All of the workers, not just the steel workers, the plumbers, the electricians, the painters, everybody signed it, and I’m going to be the last to sign it.