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Trump pauses oil exec summit to peek at White House ballroom's progress
By Emma Colton
Published January 09, 2026
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 ballroom is under construction.
President Donald Trump briefly paused his high-stakes meeting with oil executives to steal a peek at the progress being made in the White House ballroom. (Fox News)
"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 after 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.
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Photos of the demolition crew dismantling the East Wing's facade circulated on social media and in news reports in October 2025, sparking outrage from Democrats and other Trump critics who argued the president was "destroying" the White House.
Trump said Friday 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.
A McCrery Architects rendering provided by the White House of the new ballroom. (The White House)
"We're ahead of schedule in the ballroom and under budget. It's going to be … I don't think there will be anything like it in the world, actually. ... This is, as you know, our biggest room, which would seat 100 for dinner, maybe, if you're lucky, if you're … nice and tight.
"And the ballroom will seat many, and it'll also take care of the inauguration with bulletproof glass, drone-proof ceilings and everything else, unfortunately, that today you need."
The president repeatedly has remarked that the White House's current rooms do not accommodate large crowds for dinners and other public events.
Trump hosted nearly two dozen oil executives at the White House Friday to discuss investment in Venezuela after the U.S. military's successful capture of the nation's dictatorial president, Nicolás Maduro, Saturday.
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Democratic leaders and liberal media figures condemned President Donald Trump for breaking ground on the White House ballroom construction project. (Andrew Harnik/Getty)
The lengthy lineup of oil companies includes Chevron, Exxon, ConocoPhillips, Continental, Halliburton, HKN, Valero, Marathon, Shell, Trafigura, Vitol Americas, Repsol, Eni, Aspect Holdings, Tallgrass, Raisa Energy and Hilcorp.
Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum also attended the meeting.
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"The plan is for them (oil companies) to spend at least $100 billion to rebuild the capacity and the infrastructure necessary," Trump said during the meeting. "Venezuela has also agreed that the United States will immediately begin refining and selling up to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan crude oil, which will continue indefinitely.
"We're all set to do it. We have the refining capacity, (which) was actually based very much on the Venezuelan oil, which is a heavy oil, very good oil."
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-pauses-oil-exec-summit-peek-white-house-ballrooms-progress