Remarks transcript, Aug 17, 2026 (Donald Trump)

——the people that are opposing the ballroom are people that, in my opinion, are very disloyal to our country. Very, very disloyal to our country.

And I think we're doing very well. We're way ahead of schedule. We're under budget. It's going to be the most beautiful ballroom of its kind.

You know, when I was in China, we went to the Great Hall of China. It was this big, beautiful building. And we don't have anything like that. And we have to have that. It's very important.

But we also are getting tremendous military protection, drone protection. The building is drone-proof. It's missile-proof, as much as something can be missile-proof. It's totally bulletproof, any bullet. Nothing can go through the windows. We have, you know, all top-of-the-line stuff. It's very safe.

And you know, the one thing: It's not for me, because I'm going to be here very short period of time. When it's finished, it's—if it finishes right on time, on budget, on time, I'll be there for 4, 5, 6 months. This is for future Presidents. This isn't for me. This is for future Presidents. It's for—and it's a gift. We're making a gift to our country, spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build a ballroom, and it's a gift from great patriots of this country. From, as an example—I mean, I'll give you names. I released some of the names. In fact, I wanted to put them out today, but we got a little busy. And this was—frankly, being with this group of people was very important to me. But we'll be putting them out, some of the people that contributed.

But this is a gift to the United States of America. No taxpayer money is necessary. And you're going to have the finest ballroom anywhere in the world.

It's not something I wanted to do, but it's something that's needed. And again, I'm not going to get to use it very much, because by the time it's completed, I'll have 4 or 5 months left, 3 months, who knows?

But we're ahead of schedule. It's going to be the best of its—in the world—of its kind in the world. There'll be nothing like it in the world. It fits beautifully with the White House. It's gotten fantastic reviews, architectural reviews. People think it's incredible. And when you see it, you'll say, "Wow, that's really something." And that's what the United States is all about. We have to have that.

But in addition to the ballroom, we're building a great military complex. The people that started the lawsuit, the head person, I believe, was fired, and she was fired from another event just before that. And she's the one that started it. It's the National Trust, but the—National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Now, they say it's a United States. They use the word "United," but it's not related to the United States. In fact, the United States doesn't even contribute to it. It has nothing to do with it. It stopped contributing when they realized they were nothing but troublemakers. Years ago, it stopped contributing.

So this isn't like an official United States bureau, a United States agency. They stopped contributing to the National Trust. And it's called the National Trust. It has this great name: National Trust for Historic Preservation. They're a bunch of troublemakers that the United States, many years ago, long before me, stopped contributing to. The woman that started it was fired. She's no longer there. So this is the remnants of it.

And the bottom line is they're trying to stop something, and they won't be successful. But they're trying to stop something that's almost completed.

You—when you say—when you say—when they brought a suit, why didn't they bring the suit a year before? Why did they bring the suit in the middle of construction, when $400 million, almost, is spent on its construction? Why wouldn't they have started the suit a year earlier? Everybody knew it was going to—I mean, it was no secret. Everybody knew that it was taking place. So they should have done that.

But the National Trust is very disloyal to the country, because they reveal things. You know, I said the problem with the suit—I told them this—is that we have many military things in this ballroom, and ideally they shouldn't be revealed. But now they are revealed, so the world knows about it. That's okay. They shouldn't have done it. They're very disloyal.

But I think we're doing really well. We're way ahead of schedule. And somebody—and many Presidents are going to use it for many years to come. The country will have one of the greatest gifts it's ever received.

One more. One more question.

Last week, you said that you would soon declare the Strait of Hormuz to be a territory of the United States. Could you elaborate what you meant, what that would look like?

Well, I just think it's a great idea. Yes. I mean we control it. We control it with the blockade. We have a blockade. We control it with the blockade, and I like the idea of declaring it a territory. We could——

When might you do that?

We have total control over the Strait. Now, they can be a nuisance. They can put a mine in the water, and people don't like having mines hit their billion-dollar ships, you know, et cetera. But the blockade has been very effective.

And you know, we're taking out—now, maybe that will stop, or maybe it will open up even further. But we're taking out millions of barrels of oil a week.

If you look at the kind of numbers that we're doing, we're doing—the Strait is open, and the oil prices are coming down, and they will continue to come down unless we decide to do something far more drastic than we're doing.

Iran is in big trouble. They have 300-percent inflation. The country is a mess, and their military is totally defeated.

Thank you very much, everybody.

Mr. President, are you seeking an extension on the MOU?

No.