Fact Check: Did Hitler build a ballroom like Trump’s?
WASHINGTON, DC: Amid the reports of President Donald Trump demolishing the East Wing of the White House to make way for a ballroom in October 2025, a claim began circulating online comparing the Republican leader to Adolf Hitler.
Some social media posts drew a provocative comparison claiming Trump’s plan mirrored that of the German dictator. Let's find out if there's any truth to the claim.
Claim: Trump's ballroom plan mirrors that of Hitler's
According to one such post, Adolf Hitler commissioned a massive ballroom as an addition to the Reich Chancellery in Berlin in 1933. It was then the primary office of the chancellor of Germany, a position Hitler held since that year until he declared himself Führer in 1934.
Social media users on platforms such as Threads, Instagram, and Facebook spread the rumor, accompanied by an alleged image of the ballroom and a caption that read, "August 1933: Newly-elected German Chancellor Adolph Hitler announces ambitious plans to add a 60,000 square foot ballroom to the Reich Chancellery.”
Fact Check: The image accompanying the viral claim is not Hitler's ballroom
Although there is some truth to the claim that Adolf Hitler commissioned a ballroom, there are inaccuracies in the presentation of the information in the image shared online.
The building shared in the posts is not Hitler's alleged ballroom, but rather Haus der Kunst (originally Haus der Deutschen Kunst) in Munich, "one of the first architectural showcase projects of the Nazi regime and a central venue for art policy and propaganda."
Secondly, Hitler was not elected chancellor but appointed "through Germany's legal, constitutional process," by President Paul von Hindenburg. Hitler was inaugurated as chancellor on January 30, 1933.
According to a report by Snopes, there are no documents confirming the ballroom's purported size of 60,000 square feet.
Although the photo circulating online is not of the ballroom in question, and the building’s size could not be confirmed, historical records show that Hitler did commission a ballroom in the garden of the Reich Chancellery.
Though primary sources like Leonhard Gall’s original blueprints are not fully accessible, historical records and photographs confirm that the ballroom project was real, but was modest in size and primarily functioned as an air raid shelter rather than a grand event space.
Moreover, no evidence suggests, Hitler’s ballroom resembled or was comparable to Trump’s ballroom plan.
Trump's ballroom project
On October 20, demolition began on the East Wing of the White House to make way for Donald Trump’s lavish new 90,000 sq ft ballroom, a gold-accented structure inspired by his Mar-a-Lago resort.
While initial plans suggested the East Wing would remain partially intact, the president confirmed that the entire structure would be replaced to accommodate the grand ballroom.
Images captured revealed a backhoe ripping through the East Wing walls, with dust and debris filling the air. The once-pristine structure, built in 1902 and expanded in 1942 to house offices for first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, is now leveled.
