Trump says his ‘Great Ballroom’ will be used for ‘future Presidential Inaugurations’
President Donald Trump posted new renderings of the ballroom that is currently under construction, Feb. 10, 2026. (The White House)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday posted new renderings of his “Great Ballroom” and said it “will also be used for future Presidential Inaugurations.”
“Two views of the Great Ballroom being built on the site of our wonderful White House — It is on budget, and ahead of schedule!” Trump said of the construction on the former site of the demolished East Wing.
In the social media post, Trump claimed that the new ballroom “will also be used for future Presidential Inaugurations,” because of the ballroom’s expected “unprecedented structural, safety, and security features.”
According to the Library of Congress, the Constitution lays out the language of the inaugural oath but does not dictate where the ceremony must take place.
The Library of Congress adds that in the 21st century, “inaugurations usually take place on the west front of the U.S. Capitol,” but adds that “there have been many other inauguration sites in the nation’s history.”
Trump initially said in July that the $300 million ballroom project would not interfere with the existing White House structure. Later, when crews began tearing down the East Wing, an official said the “entirety of the East Wing will be modernized” as the massive 90,000 square foot ballroom is built.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has sued to stop the project.
In January, a federal judge presiding over the challenge signaled doubts about the Trump administration’s argument that the president has the legal authority to undertake the renovations and to fund them with private donations.
That judge said the decision on whether to block Trump’s renovation plans will “hopefully” come this month.
ABC News’ Steven Portnoy and Nathan Lee contributed to this report.
Border Patrol agents deploy tear gas as they clash with residents in a residential neighborhood after a minor traffic accident, January 12, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
(MINNEAPOLIS) — President Donald Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to send in federal troops as protests unfold in Minneapolis against Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.
“If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT, which many Presidents have done before me, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State,” Trump wrote in a social media post.
Democratic officials in Minnesota have decried ICE’s presence after two shootings involving federal law enforcement in the span of a week. Gov. Tim Walz called the ICE operations a “campaign of organized brutality against the people of Minnesota by our own federal government” and encouraged residents to “protest loudly, urgently, but also peacefully.”
Trump previously threatened to invoke the 1807 law, which hasn’t been used in over 30 years, last June amid protests in Los Angeles over the administration’s immigration crackdown and deployment of the National Guard and again in October for Chicago.
What to know about the Insurrection Act Generally, the use of federal troops on U.S. soil is mostly prohibited. The 1878 Posse Comitatus Act limits the military from being involved in civilian law enforcement unless Congress approves it or under circumstances “expressly authorized by the Constitution.”
One exception is the Insurrection Act, a law signed by President Thomas Jefferson in 1807.
The Insurrection Act states, in part: “Whenever there is an insurrection in any State against its government, the President may, upon the request of its legislature or of its governor if the legislature cannot be convened, call into Federal service such of the militia of the other States, in the number requested by that State, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary to suppress the insurrection.”
Another provision states it can be used “whenever the President considers that unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States, make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any State by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings.”
Some legal experts have warned the law is overly broad and vague, and there have been various calls for it to be reformed to provide greater checks on presidential power.
The Insurrection Act has been invoked in response to 30 crises over its history, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, including by presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy to desegregate schools after the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education.
Most of its uses involved federal troops being deployed, though a few situations were resolved after troops were ordered to respond but before they arrived on the scene, the Brennan Center noted.
When it was last used in 1992 by President George H.W. Bush to send the National Guard to Los Angeles, it was at the request of then-GOP Gov. Pete Wilson as riots exploded in the city after the acquittal of white police officers charged in the beating of Rodney King.
Invoking the act without coordination with state officials is something that hasn’t been done since President Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s to deal with civil unrest.
U.S. President Donald Trump at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on December 22, 2025 in Palm Beach, Florida. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump said in a post on his social media platform Thursday that he launched a “powerful and deadly strike” on ISIS terrorists in Nigeria, whom he claimed have been “targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians.”
This comes after the president posted a video in early November threatening to go into Nigeria “guns-a-blazing.” Around that time, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed Trump’s message and said in a post on X that the Department of Defense was “preparing for action.”
“I have previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was. The Department of War executed numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing,” Trump added in the post.
It is not yet clear the outcome of that strike or what the exact target was. ABC News has asked the White House for more information.
In a post on X, Hegseth further said there will be “more to come” and expressed his gratitude to the Nigerian government for its support and cooperation.
“The President was clear last month: the killing of innocent Christians in Nigeria (and elsewhere) must end.
“The @DeptofWar is always ready, so ISIS found out tonight — on Christmas.”
Hegseth ended his post with, “Merry Christmas!”
In a post on X, U.S. Africa Command confirmed the strikes, which it said were conducted “in coordination with Nigerian authorities.”
The Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja later released a statement saying that the U.S. strikes were carried out together with Nigerian authorities and are part of the ongoing security work they do with the U.S. and other partners to tackle ISIS and extremist groups.
“In line with established international practice and bilateral understandings, this cooperation includes the exchange of intelligence, strategic coordination, and other forms of support consistent with international law, mutual respect for sovereignty, and shared commitments to regional and global security,” the ministry said.
The Defense Department also reposted President Trump’s statement, along with a brief video clip labeled “unclassified” that shows a missile being launched from a ship, presumably at targets in Nigeria.
The strike against ISIS in Nigeria Thursday comes just days after U.S. strikes were launched against ISIS in Syria, following an attack on U.S. and partner forces in Syria that killed three Americans earlier this month.
Trump in November instructed the Pentagon to prepare for possible action against Nigeria after accusing the Nigerian government of not doing enough to protect Christians from violence.
Asked if there was a possibility of U.S. troops being boots on the ground in the West African country, Trump replied, “Could be.”
“They’re killing the Christians and killing them in very large numbers, we’re not going to allow that to happen,” he said.
Days later, the State Department officially updated its designation for Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) for its alleged “severe violations of religious freedom” and persecution of Christians.
Last week, Nigeria was also added to the U.S. travel ban list of countries facing partial restrictions and entry limitations.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu doesn’t deny the violence against Christians in Nigeria, but says previous claims that Nigeria is religiously intolerant “does not reflect our national reality.”
Independent experts say extremist groups have targeted both Muslims and Christians in Nigeria, killing tens of thousands of civilians in recent years.
On Christmas Eve, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu posted on X, saying that he prayed “for peace in our land, especially between individuals of differing religious beliefs.”
“I stand committed to doing everything within my power to enshrine religious freedom in Nigeria and to protect Christians, Muslims, and all Nigerians from violence,” the post continued.
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles looks on during a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump and President of Argentina Javier Milei in the Cabinet Room at the White House on October 14, 2025 in Washington, DC. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — In candid interviews with Vanity Fair, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles opened up about President Donald Trump and his Cabinet over the first year of Trump’s second term.
Wiles took part in 11 interviews that occurred in real time. Two parts of those interviews were published on Tuesday.
In them, Wiles offered unreserved descriptions of top figures in the administration — including Trump, who she said has an “alcoholic’s personality.”
Wiles said Trump, who has repeatedly said he doesn’t drink alcohol, said he “operates [with] a view that there’s nothing he can’t do. Nothing, zero, nothing.”
She called Vice President JD Vance a “conspiracy theorist for a decade” and White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought “a right-wing absolute zealot.” Billionaire Elon Musk, she said, was an “odd duck” and “avowed ketamine [user].”
Wiles also weighed in on Attorney General Pam Bondi’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, Musk’s slashing of federal government agencies and programs, the chaotic rollout of Trump’s tariff plans, the administration’s aims for Venezuela and more.
Wiles, responding to Vanity Fair’s articles, said it is a “disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President, White House staff, and Cabinet in history.”
“The truth is the Trump White House has already accomplished more in eleven months than any other President has accomplished in eight years and that is due to the unmatched leadership and vision of President Trump, for whom I have been honored to work for the better part of a decade,” Wiles wrote on X.
“Significant context was disregarded and much of what I, and others, said about the team and the President was left out of the story. I assume, after reading it, that this was done to paint an overwhelmingly chaotic and negative narrative about the President and our team,” Wiles added.
ABC News has reached out to Condé Nast, Vanity Fair’s parent company, for comment on Wiles’ criticism.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended Wiles on X.
“Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has helped President Trump achieve the most successful first 11 months in office of any President in American history. President Trump has no greater or more loyal advisor than Susie. The entire Administration is grateful for her steady leadership and united fully behind her,” Leavitt wrote in a post responding to Wiles’ criticism of the articles.
Trump, Bondi and Musk have not publicly responded to the Vanity Fair articles.
Vance, at an event Tuesday in Pennsylvania, said he hadn’t read the Vanity Fair article but responded to Wiles’ remark that he’s been a “conspiracy theorist for the past decade.” Wiles made the comment on Vance while discussing the Epstein files.
“I haven’t looked at the article. I, of course, have heard about it. But conspiracy theorist, sometimes I am a conspiracy theorist but I only believe in the conspiracy theories that are true,” Vance told reporters.
“And by the way, Susie and I have joked in private and in public about that for a long time,” he added.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
