Jenna Bush Hager Disses President Donald Trump as She Shades His White House Ballroom Expansion Plan

Did Jenna Bush Hager just throw shade at President Donald Trump?

During the Wednesday, January 28, episode of TODAY With Jenna & Sheinelle, the media personality, 44, hinted at underlying tension toward the Republican, 79, while speaking with Paris Hilton.

Bush Hager asked if Hilton — who recently visited Capitol Hill to fight for the passing of the "DEFIANCE Act” — would ever run for office.

“I’ve now passed two federal bills and almost 20 state laws to protect children,” the former reality star, 44, asserted, sharing she would only place a government bid if she could “turn the White House pink.”

“Well, you could build a ballroom!” Bush Hager quipped, referencing Trump’s plans to build a 90,000-square-foot ballroom in the East Wing of the White House.

The host once again expressed her distaste for the current president when former first lady Michelle Obama visited her show last November.

“As you know, the first lady, it’s a strange job/non-job. There’s no guidebook, there’s barely a staff,” the mom-of-three said at the time.

“Now, we don’t have a building,” Obama replied, prompting Bush Hager to lament, “R.I.P. the East Wing.”

The White House State Ballroom construction was first announced in July 2025. The East Wing was officially torn down to begin the expansion last October.

“I’m building, on top of everything else that I am doing, one of the greatest and most beautiful Ballrooms anywhere in the World, with more than 300 Million Dollars of Great American Patriots’ money, and working closely with, right from the beginning, the United States Military and Secret Service,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday, January 25.

He added, “This is a GIFT (ZERO taxpayer funding!) to the United States of America, of 300 to 400 Million Dollars (depending on the scope and quality of interior finishes!), for a desperately needed space, sought for over 150 years by previous Presidents and Administrations, so that the White House would no longer be forced to use a cheap and unsafe 'tent,' for big and important STATE EVENTS, Dinners, Meetings, Conferences, and already scheduled future INAUGURATIONS (for safety, security, and capacity purposes!), on a very wet, and subject to weather, White House lawn.”

The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued the Trump administration in December 2025 to try to stop the expansion, much to the president’s disapproval.

“I got sued, this time by the Radical Left National (No!)Trust for Historic Preservation, a group that couldn’t care less about our Country!” he exclaimed. “All of the Structural Steel, Windows, Doors, A.C./Heating Equipment, Marble, Stone, Precast Concrete, Bulletproof Windows and Glass, Anti-Drone Roofing, and much more, has been ordered (or is ready to be), and there is no practical or reasonable way to go back. IT IS TOO LATE! Why didn’t these obstructionists and troublemakers bring their baseless lawsuit much earlier? Congress never tried, or wanted, to stop the Ballroom Project!”