Trump offers Xi first tour of White House ballroom construction site

President Trump offered state dinner guests, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, a first-ever tour of the White House's under-construction 90,000-square-foot golden ballroom, calling it a "special treat" and a "clean and sparkly" site. The ballroom, one year from completion, will seat 650 people and cost an estimated $400-600 million, with taxpayers potentially covering half. Trump's authority to build it without Congressional approval was challenged in court, but the Supreme Court recently allowed construction to continue. The offer raised security concerns because the construction site includes a bunker dating to 1942, which will be upgraded with bomb shelters and a medical facility. Critics noted the irony of inviting officials from an adversary nation into a classified military space.