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The Situation Room

President Trump Touts White House Ballroom Construction. Aired 10:30a-11a ET

Aired May 19, 2026 - 10:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: President Trump is speaking right now on the South Lawn of the White House about the ballroom construction he wants.

Our senior White House reporter, Kevin Liptak, is here with me in THE SITUATION ROOM.

A little awkward, on a day like today, with so much going on, he's making a big point about the ballroom.

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes.

And we know that this is a pet project of President Trump's. It's something he is intimately focused on. But I think the context of him speaking about this today all has to do with what's going on, on Capitol Hill.

There's this $1 billion funding proposal for security measures that would be included in the ballroom. Remember, President Trump, when this was first proposed, said that this would be entirely funded by private donations, that no taxpayer dollars would go towards this 90,000-square-foot ballroom.

Now Republicans are trying to pass these additional security measures for the ballroom that add up to a billion dollars, and it's running into all kinds of trouble on Capitol Hill. A lot of Democrats are obviously opposed to it, but a lot of Republicans are opposed to it as well.

Spending a billion dollars on something like this, like, clearly a vanity project in a lot of ways for the president, is rubbing some of these Republicans the wrong way.

And so what you're seeing the president doing right now is trying to emphasize what some of these security measures actually would be, the drone-proof roof, the anti-ballistic glass, the bunker underneath the ballroom. There has been a bunker underneath the East Wing for decades and decades. Part of what this billion dollars would go to is to try and reinforce

that as well. And so what you're seeing the president do is try and advocate for some of this money. It's not clear that that's going to fly with all of these members of Congress who are questioning why so much money is needed for this project.

But we'll see if he's successful in that and as well if he takes some additional questions about all of the other news that's happening today.

BLITZER: We'll see if he starts taking questions from reporters. We'll monitor that.

LIPTAK: Yes.

BLITZER: But we're talking about, what, a billion dollars of taxpayer money to go ahead and help fund this new ballroom?

LIPTAK: Yes.

And this would go towards the Secret Service. And so the provision in the bill specifies that this money can only go towards some of the security measures. That's part of the reason President Trump has said that this would be...

BLITZER: Hold on a second. He's starting to take some questions from reporters. Let's listen to that.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But this building, I mean, I put up the money to build this building, along with a lot of great patriots.

People have put up a lot of money to build the building. And we have a building that is going to be -- I think it's going to be potentially the most beautiful building in all of Washington. And with that is great military capacity.

We're building it in conjunction with the United States military and the Secret Service.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

TRUMP: Well, they have a budget in Secret Service and the military to do some of the work that you see right here.

So, the answer is, I think they want to enhance what you see. It's very powerful. You see what's happening. It's very powerful concrete. It's 9,000-pound concrete. That -- if you know anything about concrete, that's very strong. It's very strong concrete.

But they probably want to enhance the area. They're going to spend money. This is a very sacred piece of land. This is the White House, and they want to do things. But all of -- everything that you see and the money that's being put up to build the ballroom -- and, again, the ballroom, it's necessary for the ballroom to be built with what you see over here.

It's all knit in, the air conditioning, the heating, the drone capacity, the shield. The ballroom becomes a shield for everything that you see right here. Without that, they couldn't have this. They couldn't build the lower floors without that shield over the top of it.

[10:35:04]

It's a shield that will totally protect what's downstairs. They have a lot of things going on downstairs. And some of it, you see. This goes down six stories. You see three stories because it's already been built. This will be -- very shortly, this will be in the form of a -- of this -- the roof goes along those lines.

Basically, it goes outside. You see where the wood is. You're going outside of that line, and then it goes straight up. And it's all protection, and everything's together. You can't build one without the other.

And what we have is, we have the safest building ever built, in my opinion. You can have -- and, you know, the other thing is -- and we're right on budget. We're right on plan. The only budget change would be that we doubled the size. At the request of the military, we doubled the size.

But we're right on budget, right on plan. And, originally, we were going to build a much smaller room, and it wouldn't have done the job. It just wouldn't have done the job. You have too many events. Like, if we have President Xi coming here, we have no place to put him. We had the king and the queen the other day.

And we had 1,000 people wanted, and we had a -- we ended up having 100 people sitting in a very small room. So they've been after this for a long time, but maybe more important is the safety element. This is a shield that protects everything that's inside, everything that's on top.

And, you know, obviously the White House was built in 1792. It's awfully hard to -- it's awfully hard to do that kind of a capacity that we've done here.

So this will give future presidents -- but you have to understand, when this is finished, my term ends shortly after that. This is really for other presidents. This is not for me. This is my gift to the United States of America. I'm going to be able to use it very little, because, when it's finished, we're talking about six or seven months.

But it will be used for hopefully hundreds of years for other presidents. And there will never be anything like this built again. There'll never be a room built like with the safety.

As an example, if we had the White House Correspondents' Dinner here, it would have been no problem.

(CROSSTALK) QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

TRUMP: I have. I have. I better not tell you about that, Daniel, but, yes, we have -- everybody wants to be here for the first event.

We're talking about heads of nations. So we have some very special places that it could happen. But...

QUESTION: Mr. President...

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: But we have -- we have -- literally, if the king and queen were -- if we had this finished, we would have had an event that would have been 10 times successful.

I mean, we literally were in a little room in the White House. Presidents -- now we're not even talking about safety. Presidents have been asking for this from -- literally from the time the White House has been built. But, on record, for 150 years, they have said, what about a big room?

And you all know. You probably attended. They have some where they use tents. If it rains, it's a disaster.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) gift to America.

TRUMP: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: What's your hope for America?

TRUMP: We have to have a safe country. We have to have a great country. We have to make sure that Iran doesn't get a nuclear weapon, all of the things that you see me fighting for so hard.

And it's always tough. We're negotiating with Iran. And then you have the Democrats -- I call them the Dumbocrats -- putting in a bill that Trump should immediately stop. You know how it is to negotiate with a country where you're beating them badly, they come to the table, they're begging to make a deal?

Because they're begging to make a deal. I hope we don't have to do the war, but we may have to give them another big hit. We may have to give them another big hit. I'm not sure yet. You'll know very soon.

But how do you feel when you're negotiating, you're winning every point, and they say, but, in Washington, they want to stop you from negotiating? They want to stop you. And it's only political. It's the Dumbocrats. They're dumb. It's a new name. It's a very accurate name. So I'm in the middle of a negotiation. I'm saying, you cannot have a

nuclear weapon. And it comes over the wire that the Dumbocrats want to stop Trump from further negotiations. They want to stop Trump from, if he has to, giving them another slap.

They want to have a nuclear weapon to blow up the Middle East and to blow up, frankly, the world. It's not going to happen.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Nice to see you, by the way. Good job.

QUESTION: How close were you to striking Iran? You said you were going to attack. Did you have planes in the air?

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: I was an hour away. We were all set to go. You're talking about yesterday.

QUESTION: Yes.

TRUMP: We were going to be striking very -- it would have been happening right now.

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QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) plan to?

TRUMP: Yes, it was all done. The boats, the ships are all loaded. They're loaded to the brim. And we're all set to start.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) did Gulf nations tell you that convinced you to hold off?

TRUMP: They said that they feel they've had for the first time in almost 47 years -- Iran's been the bully of the Middle East for 47 years, I mean, literally the bully of the Middle East. And they're nasty, very nasty, very dangerous.

They wanted a nuclear weapon. Had I not terminated Barack Hussein Obama's Iran nuclear deal, had I not terminated it, see, that's the win. That can't happen with the real structure.

QUESTION: Mr. President...

QUESTION: What do you want to see from Cuba's before you would take the option of military action off the table?

TRUMP: You're talking about Cuba?

Well, we're going to see. Look, Cuba is calling us. They need help. Look, Cuba is a failed nation. Cuba needs help. And we'll do that. Just hold them (INAUDIBLE) Yes, it's like an exercise game for -- give that to me. I'll hold it. I'll hold it.

It's so beautiful. See, I look so thin. They'll say, oh, he's gotten so thin because I'm holding this. You don't have to look at my waist. You can look at this. You saw enough of my waist along with President Xi in China.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Are you confident that you can reach a diplomatic deal with the..

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: With Cuba? I think so. Yes, I think so.

We are -- I am very prone toward the Cuban Americans. They've been incredible people. Many of them have lost family members. They've been very badly hurt themselves. They've been in prison. They've come to this country and they've been very successful. The Cuban American people in Miami, I mean, they are amazing people.

Most of them are in Miami, in Florida, but mostly in Miami. I'm very, very prone to helping them. I mean, that's -- they've been -- I think I got 97 percent of that vote. I want to help them. Now, they have family members in Cuba.

They've been treated very, very badly. They've been treated extremely badly. And we're going to get that solved. That's not going to be hard for us to solve.

QUESTION: But you can do that without changing the regime there, you believe, the current...

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Well, I don't know about changing the regime? I can do that whether you change the regime or not.

It's been a rough regime. They've killed a lot of people. But it's a country that really needs help. It has nothing. They can't turn on the lights. They can't eat. We don't want to see that.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: How much notice did the Gulf nations have -- how much notice did the Gulf nations have that you were going to do these strikes before they actually paused?

TRUMP: They called me over the last two days to say they have made a lot of progress and they -- because we have them negotiating with us, and primarily Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Kuwait a little bit, and Bahrain, and some of the others.

And we have them negotiating with -- all working together. It's like a team, and Israel, of course. And Israel has been a great partner. And so we are negotiating together. I got a call from numerous of these people. They know the people in Iran.

Don't forget, when you talk about regime change, I think it's the ultimate regime change, because the first level and the second level are no longer with us. They're someplace, but they're no longer with us. So we have real regime change.

But I got a call yesterday, sir, could you wait? We think we're close to a deal. And that's OK. Now, I've heard it before with these people. They change their mind. I made deals with them, no nuclear, we immediately get the nuclear dust. And they said, you're the only one can get it, because the bombers did such an unbelievable job that the mountain literally collapsed on top of it.

They said us and they thought China would be the only two countries that could even get it. But I think it's important to get it, maybe psychologically, more than anything else.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) know -- how long did they know that you were planning these attacks, the Gulf nations?

TRUMP: They knew I was getting ready to attack. I didn't tell them. I never tell anybody when.

QUESTION: You're in constant contact with...

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: I never tell anybody when. But they knew that we were very close.

I would say we were -- I was an hour away from making the decision to go today. And we would probably not be talking about a beautiful ballroom today. We'd be talking about that. And, no, I -- we -- I had made the decision.

So they called up. They had heard I made the decision. They said, sir, could you give us a couple more days, because we think they're being reasonable?

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: How long are you willing to wait for Iran to come to the table and make a deal?

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: ... two or three days, maybe Friday, Saturday, Sunday, something maybe early next week, a limited period of time, because we can't let them have a nuclear weapon.

If they had a nuclear weapon, they would start with Israel. They would blow it up. And they would blow it up fast. But they'd blow it up. And I'll tell you what. They'd go after Saudi Arabia. They'd go after Kuwait. They'd go after UAE. They'd go after Qatar. They'd go after -- I think they'd go after the entire Middle East. And it would be a whole different negotiation.

[10:45:05]

It would not be -- it would be -- it would be nuclear holocaust. And there's no question in my mind that they'd use it. There's no question. And I deal with these people. They're extremely radicalized. These are not people like when I deal with you.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: You're a very nice guy. These are people that are seriously radicalized. They would use it. The only question, would it be the first minute, the first hour or the first day?

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) pause at this time. Does there come a point soon where you're no longer going to be able to pause?

TRUMP: I'm not doing this politically. I'm doing it -- look, everyone tells me it's unpopular, but I think it's very popular.

When you -- when they hear that it's having to do with nuclear weapons, weapons that could take out Los Angeles, could take out major cities very quick, when they hear that, when they're explaining -- I will tell you what.

When we explain it to people -- I don't really have enough time to explain to people. I'm too busy getting it done. When they understand, I think it's a very -- I think it's, frankly, very popular.

But whether it's popular or not popular, I have to do it, because I'm not going to let the world be blown up on my watch. It's not going to happen.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) primary (OFF-MIKE) and your endorsed candidate.

TRUMP: Yes.

QUESTION: Do you think your candidate can beat him? And what are you seeing?

TRUMP: Well, yes, Thomas Massie is a terrible congressman. He's been a terrible congressman from day one.

Dealing with him is just horrible. I don't think he's a Republican. I think he's actually -- I think he's actually a Dumbocrat. He's not a libertarian. Sometimes, they say he's really a lib -- he's really a Dumbocrat.

He votes against us all the time. He voted against the border wall. He voted against men playing in women's sports. He voted against transgender for everybody, the mutilization of your children. He voted against, again, open borders. We have the best border we have ever had right now. Nobody's coming in. I mean, a report just came out. In the last 11 months, literally,

nobody has been allowed into our country illegally. We're taking people legally. They go through a process. But nobody's coming to our country. But we have taken out hundreds of thousands of people.

We had 10,000. It was 10,800 -- 11,888 murderers, many of these murderers allowed into our country from prisons. They were in prisons. Many of these people killed more than one. More than 50 percent killed more than one. person. This was gross malfeasance.

This was on behalf of the Biden administration. I don't know Biden, because I don't think he knew he was alive. But she, Kamala, was the border czar. She never called -- not one time, she never called the Border Patrol. She never called ICE. She never called law enforcement. She never went to the border. Think of it.

She -- I used to call every single day. And that's recently. Now I call less. We have nobody coming through. We have -- we had caravans coming through with tens of thousands of people pouring into our country. We had no idea who they were.

We would have been -- I tell you what. That would -- our country would have been destroyed. If they won this election, our country would have been -- we have now the hottest country anywhere in the world. If they had won the election, our country would have been destroyed. Our country was a dead country two years ago.

And now we have really the hottest country in the world. And this is the ballroom. And it's going to be something incredible. You see the quality of it. And they go right -- those columns go right into the roof. And on top of the roof, we're going to have the greatest drone empire that you have ever seen.

And it's going to protect Washington. Thank you all very much.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: We have a little breakfast for you.

QUESTION: Really?

TRUMP: Yes. Where is the breakfast?

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: I'd have it. Where is it?

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: ... ballroom?

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: It's right over there.

QUESTION: Can I ask you a little more on the ballroom? TRUMP: We have a little bit of a breakfast for you. I figured I would be nice to you for a change.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) rededicate (OFF-MIKE)

TRUMP: It's great.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

TRUMP: I did.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) via video, as well as members of your Cabinet.

TRUMP: Scripture.

QUESTION: Talk to me about that and why you wanted to see that happen. And are you pleased with the turnout?

TRUMP: Well, I think that it was great. Thousands of people showed up. And it was a beautiful everything, beautiful day.

I did -- I did Scripture. You think it's easy to read Scripture? It's not easy to read Scripture. That's a whole different ball game. That's not like reading a speech, we will build the wall. This is a whole different deal.

But I did it proudly. And I guess it was broadcast. We had tremendous crowds. I think religion is very important for a country. I think having religion -- this country was built largely on religion, if you look. It was built.

So -- and when you have strong religion, you have less crime. It's just a fact. You know, whatever it may be, it's like, gee, I want to go to heaven, so I'm not going to do this and that. Who knows. But we have a country that was based on religion, and I'm very proud of that.

[10:50:04]

And if you look and you see all of the polling -- I mean, polling is so fake. But, on this, it's not fake. Religion is really going up in the last year. And during the time -- I mean, really during the time I first got elected in 2016, it's a much different thing. I'm very proud of that.

Religion is a good thing. Christianity, it's a great thing for our country. I mean, our -- so many of our -- the things that we have done, the successes that we have had have been based on Christianity and religion. So I'm very proud of that.

Religion is taking off like our country is taking off. Our country is hotter now than it's ever been. And I will tell you, religion is making a tremendous comeback. You look at churches today, they're full. You go back two, three years, nobody was going. So we're very happy with it.

(CROSSTALK) QUESTION: Mr. President (OFF-MIKE) think these hate crimes that we see happening...

TRUMP: Yes.

QUESTION: ... with Christians, Jews, as well as Islam?

TRUMP: Yes. No, I'm always concerned. I see things happening.

Look, from the beginning of mankind, you have had that. You have had the good and you have the bad. I'd like to get rid of the bad, but somehow that's going to be there. But the good has been many times what it was, really many times what it was.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: On the ballroom -- on the ballroom, if Congress does know go for this $1 billion for your security funding, would you be willing or -- would you be willing to go to your donors to ask for that money?

TRUMP: Well, this is money for the whole premises, including the East Wing. This is the East Wing section.

But the ballroom is -- as you see, it's going up. It's ahead of schedule. It's larger because we -- they wanted more military capacity. They wanted more drone capacity. They needed a larger roof. And, frankly, we needed a larger facility.

And so we're doing that. And we have done this in strict coordination with the military and with the Secret Service. And they have been great to work with. The money that they're talking about is the surrounding areas and maybe enhancing some security aspects of the building.

QUESTION: But the -- so, if Congress...

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: But the building -- the building, as you see, it's a very active site. And a lot of people are amazed.

And, by the way, that floor goes down three floors, just so you understand. You're seeing the -- almost the top floor. That floor goes down three floors.

And there are many things in there having to do with security. And many of those things are going to be taken from there and put onto the roof of the building. And that has to do with drone and missile capacity.

QUESTION: A lot of presidents have done renovations to the White House, to all these things. Why do you think people are so mad about your renovations?

TRUMP: Because I'm doing it.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) park. You've got the water flowing again...

TRUMP: Yes.

QUESTION: ... all of it, and they just seem to hate you for it.

TRUMP: Yes. Well, it's a sad thing, actually.

You just -- and that's very nice. I appreciate the question. First, I said, oh, this is going to be a negative question. Then I heard -- she's really saying, why do they hate you for fixing the water fountains?

So we have -- we have 40...

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: I know. I want -- because I want to see Washington be beautiful. To me, it's very important.

But, as an example, you mentioned the water fountain. We didn't have one water fountain in -- I think we have 40. We didn't have one in Washington that worked. And, soon, they will all be working. Many of them work right now.

And the -- the -- I think one of the best things, Obama, President Obama, President Biden spent much more than $100 million on the reflecting lake between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. They spent much more. They spent, some people say, $200 million. You know what they got out of it? A closed lake. It never opened.

And when it did, it shut right away. It leaked. It was a disaster. I'm doing a job on the reflecting lake for a fraction of what they paid. Now, I have upgraded it very -- I got so into it, I have upgraded it like you wouldn't believe. I'm doing all the walkways outside. I'm doing it properly.

But it's a much bigger job. But you see it's happening now. It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be waterproof. It's going to be reflecting again. I took over a dirty, filthy thing that wasn't open, and it was disgusting. And friends of mine would come to the Lincoln or the Washington and they'd say, sir, it's disgusting.

I said, what's disgusting? They're reflecting lake. So I drove down. I looked with Secretary Burgum, who's fantastic, of Interior. He's fantastic. And we got together. And we have -- it's under construction right now. I want to get it open before July 4, which we will easily be able to do.

It'll be open before that, but easily be able to do, but July 4 being a very special day. And it is going to be beautiful, beautiful blue color, dark blue color. It's very reflective. I put a thing out yesterday showing the reflection. We did a little test. We wanted to see. It's unbelievable. It's like a mirror.

QUESTION: How did it do? Did it look good? Did it work? TRUMP: Well, it's like a mirror. It's beautiful.

QUESTION: And I saw there was guys out there, almost like...

TRUMP: Yes.

QUESTION: Are they hand-painting it? Is that how they're...

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Yes, they're doing -- yes, well, they're fixing the stone outside, and they're sandblasting the stone.

We're doing a much bigger job than we wanted to do. But think of it. Obama and Biden spent over $100 million. And you know what? They got nothing. They opened it up, and it leaked like a sieve, and they closed it, and it stay closed. They've been working on it for years.

[10:55:08]

I've been working on this for a couple of months. When it's finished, it's going to be incredible. But we have other fountains, beautiful fountains. They haven't worked.

BLITZER: All right, we're going to continue to monitor President Trump answering some reporters' questions over at the East Wing of the White House, where this new ballroom is going up.

We heard a lot of banging going on, a lot of construction going on.

Kevin Liptak, our White House reporter, is with us.

He also made some news on the war with Iran. He said: "We may have to give them another big hit." That's a direct quote. "We may have to give them another big hit." He said he was an hour away from that decision just yesterday, decided to postpone it a little bit.

What's going on?

LIPTAK: Yes, he essentially said that the planes were about to be in the air to revive this war in Iran before he got a call from some of those Gulf nations, who asked him to hold off.

That's probably the clearest indication we've got from the president that he is willing and ready to go to restart this war. But he says he wants to give diplomacy another shot here.

And he did lay out a new timeline for Iran. Now, these timelines have a way of shifting with President Trump. He's blown past them. He's extended them. He's delayed them. But, at least for now, he says he's willing to give Iran what he says are two to three more days to come up with some sort of agreement that he can sign off on.

He says Friday, Saturday, Sunday, early next week, a limited period of time, he says, before Iran can come back with a deal that he can sign off on. Of course, the biggest question here is the nuclear issue. He says that it has -- it's of the utmost importance that they not be able to obtain a nuclear weapon.

Nothing we've heard from Iran so far gives any indication that they're anywhere near a deal that he can sign off on, that he can agree on. But at least he says that he's giving them a little bit more time.

BLITZER: Because the Iranians in their official public statements are saying there's never going to be any Iranian agreement to give up on its nuclear enrichment program.

LIPTAK: Yes, they say that that is their right. President Trump has said it is a red line that they not be able to enrich uranium.

There's some talk about potentially a pause, a moratorium, 15 years, 20 years, that maybe both sides can come up to an agreement on. But there's no indication yet that they have signed off any of that.

I do just have to say, this is one of the more unusual events I've ever seen at the White House, the sound of that banging in the background. the president clearly very well versed on some of the details of this construction project.

It's obviously sort of a consuming passion of his, as he's trying to argue to get this billion dollars through Congress for some of the security funding. But it's just so discordant to see him talking about the ballroom, to hear sort of the construction noises in the background, to see the renderings cascading off of the easel as he's trying to make his case both about that and about the Iran war.

Just a very unusual event, and I don't think we can kind of ignore how strange it is.

BLITZER: That's a good point, indeed.

All right, Kevin Liptak, don't go too far away.

We're going to continue to monitor what's going on at the White House, lots of news going on right now.

We'll take a quick break, and resume our special coverage here in THE SITUATION ROOM right after this.

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