The White House's invitation list included representatives from major companies such as Amazon, Apple, Meta, Google, Microsoft, and Palantir, as well as executives from the defense giant Lockheed Martin, reported American media on Wednesday evening when the dinner was held.
The invitation came with an indirect request made by the evening's host:
Many of you have really, really been generous. I mean, some of you sitting here say "My lord, would $25 million be suitable?" I say, I'll take it, said President Trump, who wants to build a banquet hall with space for around a thousand guests to be protected by bulletproof glass.
Billion-dollar construction project
The cost is estimated to amount to $250 million, equivalent to approximately 2.4 billion kronor.
The construction of the banquet hall has already begun, and Trump chose to theatrically pull away a curtain to show the initial work – one of the most extensive in the White House area in the last century.
The project is one of many that real estate mogul Trump is carrying out in the small presidential palace: gold and stucco are a recurring theme.
But the real dream is the building that Trump wants to see on the historic National Mall: the parade ground that stretches from the White House, past, among other things, the Jefferson Monument, the Lincoln Monument, and the memorial for the fallen in the Vietnam War to the US Congress building, the Capitol.
Three sizes
Plans for Trump's monument were revealed by a photographer from the news agency AFP who managed to capture a model of a triumphal arch on film last week.
It has already been given a name: Arc de Trump – with reference to the triumphal arch in Paris named Arc de Triomphe. Formally, it will be called the Independence Arch.
Trump's proposal comes in three sizes. One of them shows an arch that is larger than the one in Paris.
It was not clear which of the three proposals was the American president's favorite.
It will be really beautiful, stated Donald Trump.
