President Donald Trump said he is hard at work on something the country “desperately” needs.

But not everyone agrees with his urgency on this one.

“I’m building something right now in the White House, one of the greatest ballrooms, so desperately needed, anywhere in the world,” he said during a Fox Business interview with Larry Kudlow that aired on Tuesday.

Kudlow had asked the president about Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who Trump has been feuding with over interest rates. Trump complained about the ballooning cost of a renovation of the Fed’s office buildings under Powell’s watch.

That’s when Trump shifted to the massive ballroom he is having built on the grounds of the White House, bragging that he was getting it done for “a fraction of what this guy’s doing.”

Trump has said the ballroom will cost up to $400 million, but will be funded by private donations ― a move that has raised ethical and legal questions that the White House has yet to answer.

Work continues on the construction of the ballroom at the White House, Wednesday, Feb., 4, 2026, in Washington, where the East Wing once stood. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

via Associated Press

Trump has been so obsessed with his ballroom that he frequently brings it up unprompted. Last month, during a White House meeting with oil industry executives to discuss Venezuela, Trump suddenly got up from the table to stare out a window at the construction site.

“I gotta look at this myself,” he said. “Wow, what a view.”

US President Donald Trump looks through a window to observe construction work on his new ballroom prior to a meeting with US oil company executives in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on January 9, 2026. President Trump is aiming to convince oil executives to support his plans in Venezuela, a country whose energy resources he says he expects to control for years to come. US forces seized Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro in a sweeping military operation on January 3, with Trump making no secret that control of Venezuela's oil was at the heart of his actions. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Images)

SAUL LOEB via Getty Images

The view at that moment wasn’t much; Trump last year had the East Wing of the White House demolished to make room for his ballroom ― a move that led to a lawsuit from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which is attempting to block the project.

Trump has railed against the lawsuit, last month also insisting that the ballroom is “desperately needed” as he attacked the agency on social media.

But even after hearing him say it again on Tuesday night, critics were not convinced ― with many pointing out that the real desperate need is for relief from rising prices on groceries, rent, health insurance premiums and more.

They fired back on X: