The key facts

  • Trump called renovating the White House a way to relax and responded to Obama's criticism
  • According to him, the building was in “terrible condition,” and the decor around some windows had partially fallen off
  • Trump explained that he did not build the ballroom during his first term because of opposition from his opponents

Response to Obama's criticism

US President Donald Trump said on Monday that renovating the White House helps him relax. He was responding to criticism of his construction projects from former President Barack Obama, Anadolu reports. Speaking at a rally in Corinth, Mississippi, Trump said: “I'm really good at real estate and at fixing things. I fix things very well, very beautifully, and I always build beautifully and inexpensively,” adding that this is “a natural thing” for him and that it “really relaxes” him.

The essence of the dispute

The exchange of remarks was prompted by Obama, who joked over the weekend that after Trump's makeover the White House looked as if “Saddam Hussein had opened a Cheesecake Factory.” Trump retorted at the rally: “He said, ‘This is not a Cheesecake Factory.’ Can you believe that? And yet it's a very successful company. He doesn't like successful companies.”

The condition of the building and the ballroom

Trump claimed that the White House was in “terrible condition” when he took power: according to him, plaster was peeling off the exterior walls, and the decor around several windows had “fallen off or half fallen off.” He said a mold was made from the one surviving element and the missing pieces were cast from it. Speaking about the construction of a ballroom in the East Wing, the president said he would have done it during his first term, “but was under siege by radical lunatics” and did not have time. According to him, the White House is “a symbol of America” and must be properly maintained.