{"id":169175,"date":"2025-10-23T22:57:01","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T22:57:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/watch-white-house-holds-news-briefing-as-trump-pardons-founder-of-crypto-exchange-binance-pbs\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T22:57:01","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T22:57:01","slug":"watch-white-house-holds-news-briefing-as-trump-pardons-founder-of-crypto-exchange-binance-pbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/watch-white-house-holds-news-briefing-as-trump-pardons-founder-of-crypto-exchange-binance-pbs\/","title":{"rendered":"WATCH: White House holds news briefing as Trump pardons founder of crypto exchange Binance – PBS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Associated Press<\/span> <\/a> Associated Press <\/a>
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The estimated price tag for the president\u2019s planned renovations now stands at about $300 million \u2014 much higher than the initial $200 million that the White House put forward.
Watch White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s news briefing in the player above.<\/strong>
That\u2019s because like \u201cwith any construction project, there are changes over time,\u201d White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday.
\u201cThis is going to be a magnificent addition,\u201d Leavitt said.
READ MORE:\u00a0<\/b>Who\u2019s paying for Trump\u2019s $300 million ballroom?<\/a>
On whether the cost of the ballroom includes costs for upgrading the security bunker located under the East Wing, Leavitt said \u201clike any security enhancements that are made on the white House grounds, those will be made and maintained by United States Secret Service.\u201d
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The press secretary was asked Thursday about President Donald Trump\u2019s previous comments that his planned ballroom project wouldn\u2019t interfere with the current structure.
Leavitt responded that the administration made clear from the start that the East Wing would have to be \u201cmodernized.\u201d
She also said \u201cplans changed\u201d when Trump heard from architects and the builders behind the project.
\u201cThe plans changed when the president heard counsel from the architects and the construction companies who said that in order for this East Wing to be modern and beautiful for many, many years to come, for it to be a truly strong and stable structure, this phase one that we\u2019re now in was necessary and the president wants to do right by the people\u2019s house,\u201d she said.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt holds a picture captioned “Construction of the West Wing in 1902” during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C., Oct. 23, 2025. Photo by Jonathan Ernst\/Reuters
As they continue to promote information about Trump\u2019s ongoing ballroom renovations, the White House has made some adds to its website that attack former President Joe Biden and some of his other Democratic predecessors.
Under a section titled \u201cMajor Events Timeline,\u201d there now includes references to a bag of cocaine that was found in a common area of the West Wing in July 2023 during the Biden presidency.
The Trump White House also added Biden\u2019s designation of \u201cTransgender Day of Visibility\u201d in 2024, which fell on the same day as Easter Sunday that year, as well as references to former President Bill Clinton\u2019s affair with an intern.
\u201cSome easter eggs on the White House site for the wannabe historians on social media,\u201d wrote Kaelan Dorr, the White House\u2019s deputy communications director, on the site X. \u201cEnjoy :)\u201d
Trump on Thursday pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who created the world\u2019s largest cryptocurrency exchange and served prison time after failing to stop criminals from using the platform to move money connected to child sex abuse, drug trafficking and terrorism.
Zhao has deep ties to World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture that the Republican president and his sons Eric and Donald Jr. launched in September.
READ MORE:<\/strong> Trump pardons Binance founder Changpeng Zhao<\/a>
Trump\u2019s most recent financial disclosure report reveals he made more than $57 million last year from World Liberty Financial, which has launched USD1, a stablecoin pegged at a 1-to-1 ratio to the U.S. dollar. World Liberty Financial also recently announced that an investment fund in the United Arab Emirates would be using $2 billion worth of USD1 to purchase a stake in Binance. Zhao also has publicly said that he had asked Trump for a pardon that could nullify his conviction.
Leavitt said in a statement Thursday that the Biden administration prosecuted Zhao out of a \u201cdesire to punish the cryptocurrency industry.\u201d She said there were \u201cno allegations of fraud or identifiable victims,\u201d though Zhao had pleaded guilty in November to one count of failing to maintain an anti-money-laundering program.
Leavitt said the president has \u201cthe constitutional authority to grant clemency requests, and that he and the White House have a very thorough examination of every pardon request that comes to the president\u2019s desk.\u201d
She said during her briefing with reporters that the pardon was \u201cthoroughly reviewed by the White House counsel office\u201d and that the crypto billionaire known as CZ faced \u201can overly prosecuted case by the Biden administration.\u201d
\u201cThe Biden administration was pursuing an egregious over-sentencing of this individual. And the previous administration was very hostile to the cryptocurrency industry,\u201d she said. \u201cSo the president wants to correct this overreach.\u201d
Leavitt laid out Trump\u2019s trip to Malaysia, Japan and South Korea \u2014 with the president set to depart on Friday at 11 p.m. EDT.
Trump will arrive in Malaysia on Sunday morning local time. He\u2019ll then meet Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and attend a working dinner for the leaders attending the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summits.
On Monday morning local time, Trump will fly to Tokyo. He will on Tuesday morning local time meet with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
On Wednesday, Trump will fly to Busan, South Korea for a meeting with Korean President Lee Jae Myung. He is then scheduled to deliver keynote remarks at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO luncheon and later participate in a working dinner with APEC leaders.
On Thursday morning, Trump will meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and then fly back to the U.S. in the evening.
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By<\/span> Terry Chea, Christopher Weber, Associated Press
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By<\/span> Darlene Superville, Associated Press
By<\/span> Darlene Superville, Associated Press
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Associated Press Associated Press Leave your feedbackThe estimated price tag for the president\u2019s planned renovations now stands at about $300 million \u2014 much higher than the initial $200 million that the White House put forward.Watch White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s news briefing in the player above.That\u2019s because like \u201cwith any construction project, there are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":169176,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-169175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}