White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is facing backlash after defending President Donald Trump’s controversial decision to tear down the East Wing of the White House to make room for a $250 million ballroom — and trying to drag Barack Obama into it.
During an appearance on Fox News’ Jesse Watters Primetime, Leavitt brushed off the uproar over the demolition, calling it “fake outrage.” She insisted Trump’s extravagant construction project wasn’t unusual, claiming other presidents had also wanted more space for fancy events at the White House.
But it was her next comment that raised eyebrows. “Former President Obama notably complained that during his tenure, he had to hold a state visit on the South Lawn and get a very expensive tent,” Leavitt said on Tuesday, reported Huffing Post.
There’s just one problem with that claim — there’s no evidence Obama ever said such a thing. In fact, records and old footage show quite the opposite. It’s true the Obama administration hosted two state dinners under a large tent on the South Lawn — one in November 2009 for India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and another in October 2016 for Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. But Obama didn’t complain about it. He actually celebrated it.
During his 2009 state dinner speech, Obama even referenced India’s rich cultural traditions, saying, “As we all know, in India, some of life’s most treasured moments are often celebrated under the cover of a beautiful tent. It’s a little like tonight. We have incredible food and music and are surrounded by great friends.”
ABC News reported at the time that the tent was seen by White House staff as a sign of the administration’s “openness,” since it allowed them to host more guests than the East Room or State Dining Room ever could.
Ironically, the person who did complain about the tent back then was Donald Trump himself. In a 2011 interview on The Rush Limbaugh Show, Trump claimed he was so bothered by seeing the “old, rotten tent” that he personally called the White House to offer to build a proper ballroom.
“I called up the White House. I said, ‘Listen, I’m really good at this stuff. I will build you a magnificent ballroom. We’ll go through committees,’” Trump said at the time. “‘I will build the White House a ballroom so when the head of India comes to town, we can give him a five-star dinner in a magnificent ballroom befitting this country and the White House.’ They never got back to me. It’s a hundred-million-dollar gift. They never got back to me.”
That same 2009 state dinner was also remembered for a notorious security breach when Virginia couple Michaele and Tareq Salah managed to slip past security and mingle with guests — a stunt that helped launch their brief reality TV fame on The Real Housewives of Washington, D.C.
Now, over a decade later, Trump is finally getting his ballroom — but at the cost of the East Wing’s historic structure. And with Leavitt’s attempt to rewrite history about Obama, critics say the “fake outrage” might not be as fake as she claims.