Philadelphia D.A. vows to keep piece of Trump’s White House ballroom ‘after we all blow it up’

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said Tuesday he plans to keep a chunk of President Trump’s White House ballroom as a desk paperweight once the structure is demolished, telling a crowd at an annual slavery commemoration event that “we’re gonna blow it up.”

Mr. Krasner made the remarks while speaking at the 24th annual slavery commiseration at the President’s House site in Philadelphia’s Old City, according to NBC10 Philadelphia.

“In about 10 to 15 years, we are all going to be sitting here with smiles on our faces,” Mr. Krasner said. “And I’m going to have a paper weight sitting on my desk. And do you know what that paperweight’s going to be? It’s going to be a piece of the ballroom after we blow it up.” He added that the demolition would happen in an “official ceremony,” with the ballroom’s pieces sold to reimburse taxpayers.

During the same appearance, Mr. Krasner also called Mr. Trump a “pain in the ass” and the “embodiment of hate, the embodiment of ignorance and the embodiment of depriving people of their vote and education.” 

The ballroom, under construction where the White House’s East Wing once stood, is estimated to cost about $400 million, which the administration says is being covered entirely by private donations, with no taxpayer money required for the structure itself. A lawsuit brought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation seeking to halt construction reached the Supreme Court, where Chief Justice John Roberts, who handles emergency matters arising from the D.C. Circuit, issued an administrative stay of a lower-court injunction, allowing work to continue while the full Court weighs the administration’s request. The order contains no explanation and does not necessarily reflect the Court’s thinking on the underlying legal dispute. 

Attorney General Todd Blanche, asked about Mr. Krasner’s comments during a Fox News appearance, pushed back sharply.

“It’s disgusting that a district attorney in Philadelphia, who, by the way, has a city with its own problems, is so focused on what the president is doing at the White House,” Mr. Blanche said, adding that the ballroom “is being built. It’s not stopped. And the Supreme Court issued the stay, which allows us to continue the work.” 

Mr. Krasner’s remarks came amid a separate, long-running dispute between Philadelphia and the federal government over an exhibit at the same site. Under a March 2025 executive order directing federal agencies to remove what the administration called “improper partisan ideology” from public exhibits, the National Park Service moved to replace panels detailing the history of the nine enslaved people George Washington kept at the President’s House. The complete slavery exhibit was removed in January 2026, and a district judge subsequently ordered the original panels restored while litigation proceeded.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled June 18 that the administration could replace the exhibit, then ruled again July 3 that installation could proceed without further delay; the new panels went up July 15. Philadelphia has petitioned for a rehearing of the appellate panel’s decision. 

Mr. Krasner also addressed that dispute in his remarks, telling the crowd, “This memorial will be here, the educational content will be here. People will be coming to see it, not for a year or two, or not even 20 years.” He contrasted that with the ballroom, saying, “There will not be a ballroom.”