President Donald Trump is defending the White House ballroom he's building. He showed off the construction site to a group of reporters on Tuesday. The surprise visit comes days after the Senate parliamentarian said a proposal to pay for $1 billion in security additions to the White House campus could not be included in a bill currently before Congress. Raising his voice over the banging and clanging of loud construction equipment, Trump described the ballroom's security features, repeated that taxpayer money isn't paying to build it and called it a "gift to the United States of America.”

New York (AP) — Whether dressed in a jewel-encrusted skeletal form, sculpted breast plates or anatomy-evoking trompe l’oeil, Met Gala guests p…

The Justice Department is pressing for the dismissal of preservationists’ lawsuit over the planned $400 million White House ballroom after the shooting at Saturday’s media gala. But its latest court filing reads more like a Truth Social post from the president than a document crafted by government lawyers. The filing submitted Monday by the Justice Department is chock-full of the kind of Trumpian touches the president uses in written communication, from erratic capitalization, exclamation points, non sequiturs, rhetorical questions, praise for the president and accusations his opponents are insane. The 16-page filing is a sign of the extraordinary degree to which the president has demolished the traditional wall of independence between the Justice Department and White House.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Preservationists are pressing ahead with their lawsuit against President Donald Trump's planned $400 million White House bal…