White House tours to pause as ballroom construction starts, congressional offices say
(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration will suspend public White House tours due to the construction that is scheduled to start soon on a new ballroom, multiple congressional offices told ABC News.
Spokespeople or the official websites for several of these members say they were told by the White House that the pause on these tours will start in September and tours could be postponed “indefinitely.”
Offices gave various reasons for the pause on tours, including “construction projects,” “extensive renovations” and “because of construction on the new White House ballroom.”
All tours of the White House are scheduled through a visitor’s representative or senator. About 10,000 people toured the White House each week during the Biden administration.
ABC News has reached out to the White House for comment. The Visit the White House page on the White House website doesn’t mention tours being paused, but greets visitors with an “Announcement Regarding Upcoming Expansion” about the ballroom project, which it says will begin in September.
The website for Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., reads: “Unfortunately, the Trump administration recently announced that it would pause all public tours of the White House beginning in September to accommodate construction projects. We apologize for any inconvenience to those who have submitted tour requests for this period, and will share further updates as soon as additional guidance is available.”
The website for Rep. Eugene Vindman, D-Va., says: “Beginning on September 1st, 2025, the White House will be undergoing extensive renovations. As a result, all tours of the White House are postponed indefinitely. To read more information from the White House, please read their official statement. We sincerely apologize for any inconveniences this may cause.”
Other congressional offices said they have received unclear instruction about tours when they’ve asked the administration.
“We haven’t gotten any real guidance from the WH – they haven’t published any new dates and when we’ve inquired they said that “availability has not yet been published as they continue to finalize the president’s schedule,'” one congressional aide said.
Another office said it had reached out to the White House after the Washington Post initially reported that tours would be suspended. Administration officials told their office coordinator that the pause was “because of construction on the new White House ballroom,” an aide said.
Yet another said that they were told White House tours were not immediately barred but rather would halt at the start of September.
A White House liaison “confirmed that we can still book tours through the end of August, but they have cancelled all September tours. They said that they’ll give more info after Labor Day,” an aide told ABC News.
A separate congressional office also said it was waiting for a more “formal announcement from the visitor’s office” about how to move forward with scheduling public East Wing tours.
Another office said its constituents whose September tour was cancelled included “military families who had been approved for tours timed to show their families the White House before they were transferred to new duty stations outside the region.”
“They’re pretty disappointed,” the aide added.
The Trump administration suspended tours for about a month at the start of his second term in January. First lady Melania Trump made the announcement when they reopened in late February.
ABC News’ Benjamin Siegel, Michelle Stoddart and Caleigh Bartash contributed to this report.
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