During remarks at a state dinner in honor of Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday, President Donald Trump went "off script" and invited guests of the dinner to walk into the construction site of the White House ballroom. The ballroom and its ongoing construction have sparked numerous legal battles, with the Supreme Court recently handing Trump a major victory by allowing the construction to move forward. The White House has argued the ballroom project is necessary for security and is funded through private donations rather than taxpayer money.
"If I could go off script just for just a second," Trump said during the dinner, "As a special treat in honor of President Xi and Madame Peng, I'd like to invite everyone in the room to visit through that beautiful curtain in the back door. It's all lit up, and it looks beautiful. It's one year away from completion.
The new ballroom that you've heard about, and you will see something that I think you will really love ... you'll be the first people to step foot on that, and we'll do that maybe after we're finished with the entertainment tonight. Anybody wants to walk into a construction site that's nice and clean and sparkling, it's our honor to have you do so.” The dinner comes after Trump and first lady Melania Trump greeted Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Wednesday evening in a rare welcome. The dinner and bilateral meetings come amid the backdrop of diplomatic tensions between the two countries regarding artificial intelligence, trade and other policies.
This is a developing story that will be updated with additional information. Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.
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