WASHINGTON, Nov 5 — While Republicans nursed a brutal hangover from their US midterms defeat, President Donald Trump was busy—showing off his new ballroom at the White House.

“It’s going to be not only one of the biggest, but it’ll be the most beautiful ballroom I think anywhere in the world,” Trump told reporters inside the skeleton of the building.

It was a surreal start to one of Trump’s most surreal press conferences.

Instead of the formal post-midterms remarks that previous presidents have made, the 80-year-old announced that he was there to sign the final steel beam going into the roof of his US$400 million pride and joy.