Two days into 2026, President Trump and his motorcade made a surprise pit stop to find the perfect marble for the White House ballroom.
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WASHINGTON – Two days into 2026, President Donald Trump and his motorcade made a surprise pit stop to find the perfect marble for the White House ballroom.
President Trump, who is vacationing at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, stopped by Ark Stone & Tile in Lake Worth, Florida, on January 2, where he purchased marble and onyx for the ballroom “at his own expense,” White House officials said.
Reporters were not allowed to be present when the president shopped inside the store. After Trump’s speech, the motorcade continued to the Trump International Golf Club, where the president played golf.
This isn’t the first time Trump has shopped at Ark Stone & Tile, a wholesale stone company located about nine miles from Mar-a-Lago. Arc Stone & Tile supplied Italian marble for Mar-a-Lago’s ballroom in 2004, according to the company’s website.
Initial site excavation and other construction work is underway for President Trump’s 90,000-square-foot White House Ballroom, which historic preservationists are challenging in court. The east wing of the White House was quickly demolished in October to make way for an addition.
President Trump hopes to have the banquet hall completed by the end of his term in January 2029. The White House plans to submit design plans for the banquet hall to the National Capital Planning Commission at its Jan. 8 committee meeting.
President Trump has vowed to pay for the banquet hall with private donations and his own funds. President Trump said on December 29 that the project, which is expected to cost $400 million, far more than the $250 million originally expected, was “under budget and ahead of schedule.”
President Trump said the price increase was “greater than anything I talked about since I found out we were going to have the inauguration in that building.”
President Trump said the ballroom, which can seat 999 people, is needed to host large White House events that currently take place outdoors or in the much smaller East Room.
President Trump hired a new lead architect, Shalom Baranes of Washington, D.C., in December after clashing with the project’s original architect over the scale of the massive addition. The original principal architect, James McCrery II, remained as a consultant.
An October poll conducted by The Washington Post, ABC News, and Ipsos found that 56% of Americans oppose the demolition of the East Tower and the ballroom project, including 45% who said they “strongly oppose.”
X Contact Joey Garrison at @joeygarrison.
