Dan Diamond

And coming to you from Washington, D.C., the weather in Washington, D.C.

can be fickle.

There have been outdoor events that have been...

skewed or somewhat ruined because of the bad weather here.

So there's absolutely truth to the value that the White House could use more event space.

And the White House itself is small and cramped in ways that don't always come through on television.

What the president and his team are also arguing is that he's a builder who knows how to do this well and better than anybody else.

I think that's what's in the eye of the beholder if you've seen the Trump constructions around the world.

But it has raised the question of what exactly is the president going to build and why can't this go through a review process before he starts to build it?

But that's part of their argument, too.

And I think the president is also very proud, he says, of the fact that this is going to be paid for by donors, that there are about $350 million in private donations, he has said, to cover the cost, so there will be nothing to the taxpayer.

The president has said he's going to pay out of pocket, too.

On the one hand, there's polling that shows Americans do prefer that.

They don't want to pay for White House renovations.

But on the other, it raises serious questions about what are the donors hoping to get?

We have seen an administration that has played favorites, that has bent the rule of law in many cases.

So if you're donating to the president's personal priority, what are you expecting to get on the other side?

The list that the White House gave out last week is about 35, 37 companies and individuals.

There are some companies that are quite familiar.

Amazon, who was founded by Jeff Bezos, who owns The Washington Post.