John Fetterman Says There’s No Need To ‘Freak Out’ Over New White House Ballroom

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) said President Donald Trump’s new $200 million ballroom in the White House will be done in a “tasteful and historical kind of a way.”

“I mean they’re not putting in a Dave and Buster’s kind of situation here,” Fetterman told Fox News on Saturday. “Upgrading some of these facilities seems pretty normal overall.”

At the end of July, the White House announced its plans to tear down the East Wing to build a new ballroom to accommodate large social events, saying it will be a 90,000-square-foot “much-needed and exquisite addition” that will seat 650 people, and be an “ornately designed and carefully crafted space” that might look similar to the ballroom at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida club.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump and donors will finance the project. Renovations will begin in September, and it’s expected to be done before Trump leaves office ― however, construction has seemingly already begun because White House tours have been put on pause.

This is just the latest section of the White House to undergo a makeover. In June, the Rose Garden was covered in gravel, and portraits of Trump have been hung throughout the building.

While Fetterman said he doesn’t have any “strong opinions” on the ballroom, he said he isn’t going to “freak out” or make some “weird demands” or have a hearing on it, seemingly referring to his fellow Congresspeople calling out Trump about the ballroom.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a video posted on social media that the ballroom is what “DOGE is all about.”

“Cutting things, taking things away from you and not giving it to some place that needed it,” he said. “Giving it to the big shots who run the show, Donald Trump at the top of the list.”

Fetterman told Fox News that the new ballroom is “an investment” in the White House and said it won’t be done before Trump’s term is up.

Fetterman’s remarks on the ballroom were more positive than his Democratic counterparts, like Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who called it a “gigantic boondoggle,” or Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), who questioned Trump’s authority to remodel the White House. This year, Fetterman, who was once described as progressive, has shown more loyalty to Trump and Republicans by siding with Republicans on denying immigrants due process and voting to confirm Pam Bondi, who denied the results of the 2020 election, as head of the justice department.