Trump Defends White House Ballroom Renovation Cost Estimate

President Trump defended the estimated cost of around $400 million for a White House ballroom renovation project on Wednesday. The figure is roughly double what the president had repeatedly said the project would cost. Trump has maintained the project would come in under $200 million with no public money involved and would be funded with private donations.

A day earlier, Senate Republicans proposed adding $1 billion in taxpayer funds for security enhancements to the project.

A White House official named Patrick Witt said the Bitcoin Strategic Reserve announcement is coming within weeks.

Iran is reviewing the latest U.S. proposal aimed at ending the months-long war, according to the country's state-owned news agency ISNA. ISNA said parts of an Axios report on an imminent 14-point memorandum of understanding contained ambitious and unrealistic proposals that Iran has rejected in recent days.

The agency emphasized that discussions focus on ending the war rather than the nuclear issue. The White House reportedly believes it could be closing in on the one-page memorandum that would establish a framework for future talks on Tehran’s nuclear program.

President Trump said that should Iran fail to agree to a deal, combat operations against Iran will resume at a significantly increased tempo.

U.S. stock futures rose in pre-market trading with the S&P 500 setting a new record after more than $1 trillion in market value was added. AMD jumped 21 percent after beating earnings and revenue expectations with guidance citing accelerating data center growth and strong demand for processors and GPU shipments.

Corning gained 15 percent after announcing a long-term partnership with Nvidia to strengthen U.S. manufacturing for AI infrastructure. Google parent Alphabet rose 1.6 percent after Anthropic committed to spend $200 billion with Google Cloud over five years.