Trump likes to unwind at the end of the day by listening to construction updates on his ballroom: report

At the end of a long day, President Donald Trump likes to unwind by hearing about the latest construction updates on his beloved $400 million ballroom, according to a report.

Despite legal battles, construction is moving ahead on Trump’s pet project, which saw the historic East Wing razed to the ground in October. The project has proved largely unpopular with the public.

A site manager for the Washington, D.C.-based construction firm Clark Construction works out of a trailer on the grounds of the White House, and on some evenings is called into the Oval Office “to go over details” with Trump “for more than an hour at a time,” The Washington Post reports, citing a person familiar with the conversations.

“His version of a bourbon is construction,” the source reportedly said of Trump, who is famously sober.

The revelation came as the White House hosted a reception Wednesday evening for the group that manages donations to the project, the newspaper reports.

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Trump, a real estate mogul, has previously professed his love of construction and shared how he is partial to the sound of drilling and hammering.

As construction began on the project, the price tag of which went from $200 million to approximately $400 million, the president described the sound of building work as “music to my ears.”

“You probably hear the beautiful sound of construction,” he said in October. “You hear that sound? Oh, that's music to my ears. I love that sound,” he said. “Other people don't like it. When I hear that sound, it reminds me of money.”

First lady Melania Trump, however, is not so happy as construction crews have been working on the ballroom from 6 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., Trump revealed in March.

“When you hear all that hammering out there, you know why the first lady is not thrilled, exactly,” he said at the time. “She said, ‘Will the pile drivers ever stop?’”

“You know what? To me that’s a beautiful sound,” he repeated. “She doesn't like it, I love it.”

The Trump administration has bolstered the case for the ballroom after the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 25, citing security concerns.

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“I’m building a safe ballroom, and one of the reasons I’m building it is exactly what happened last night,” Trump told CBS News’ 60 Minutes the day after the shooting.

Trump’s enthusiasm for the ballroom is not shared by the general public, according to a recent Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll that found just 28 percent support it. Fifty-six percent of respondents said they opposed the development and another 16 percent were unsure, those numbers not changing since the question was last posed in October.

Democrats have seized on the ballroom’s unpopularity ahead of the midterm elections.

Former president Barack Obama’s adviser, Dan Pfeiffer, said the ballroom was a gift to Democrats.

“This is a layup for Democrats, because we don’t even have to work that hard to highlight the ballroom," Pfeiffer said in a blog post this week. “Trump can’t shut up about it.”

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