Karoline Leavitt is on cleanup duty again — and this time, she’s blaming Barack Obama for Donald Trump’s wrecking crew tearing into one of the most historic parts of the White House.
Appearing on Jesse Watters Primetime, the White House press secretary brushed off the outrage surrounding Trump’s $250 million “ballroom project” — which has already seen the East Wing reduced to rubble — as nothing more than “fake outrage.”
Leavitt insisted that Trump isn’t doing anything unprecedented, claiming that former presidents have all wanted more space to host grand events. Then she went further, dragging Obama into the conversation with a shaky defense.
“President Obama notably complained that during his tenure, he had to hold a state visit on the South Lawn and get a very expensive tent,” Leavitt said Tuesday.
The problem? There’s no record of Obama ever complaining about that. Yes, the Obama administration did put up large white tents in 2009 and again in 2016 for state visits from India’s and Italy’s prime ministers. But that’s where the truth ends and Leavitt’s spin begins.
In reality, Obama seemed to enjoy the setup. During the 2009 visit for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he leaned into the theme:
“As we all know, in India some of life’s most treasured moments are often celebrated under the cover of a beautiful tent. It’s a little like tonight,” Obama said. “We have incredible food and music and are surrounded by great friends.”
At the time, ABC News reported that Obama’s team saw the tent as a gesture of openness — a way to invite more guests than the cramped East Room could hold.
The tent returned seven years later for Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s visit, marking Obama’s last state dinner.
But if anyone did complain about the tent, it wasn’t Obama. It was Donald Trump. Back in 2011, Trump went on The Rush Limbaugh Show to vent about the setup — and, in typical Trump fashion, claimed he tried to personally fix it.
“I called up the White House. I said, ‘Listen, I’m really good at this stuff. I will build you a magnificent ballroom. We’ll go through committees,’” Trump said.
“‘I will build the White House a ballroom so when the head of India comes to town we can give him a five-star dinner in a magnificent ballroom befitting this country and the White House.’ They never got back to me. It’s a hundred-million-dollar gift. They never got back to me.”
Now, more than a decade later, Trump’s getting his wish — at least for himself. Construction crews began tearing into the East Wing on October 20, with images showing the facade of the historic structure already demolished. The plan? Replace it with a marble-and-gold ballroom straight out of a Vegas casino brochure.
For many, the move feels like a desecration of a national landmark. But for Leavitt, it’s just another example of Democrats being jealous.
She didn’t quite say those words outright, but her tone on Fox made it clear — anyone criticizing Trump’s “vision” is simply mad they didn’t think of it first.
It’s a bold defense for what critics are calling one of the most ostentatious and unnecessary presidential projects in U.S. history. But for Trump’s camp, that seems to be the point: tear down the old, build something flashy, and call it “historic” — even if it means rewriting a little history along the way.
Watch the full segment below from Fox News:
