Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner sharply criticized President Donald Trump on Tuesday, predicting the president’s White House ballroom will eventually be demolished while a Philadelphia memorial documenting the history of slavery will endure.

Speaking at the 24th annual Slavery Commiseration at the President’s House site in Old City, Krasner called Trump a “pain in the [expletive]” and an “embodiment of hate, the embodiment of ignorance and the embodiment of depriving people of their vote and education.”

The annual ceremony commemorates the first documented arrival of enslaved Africans in the English colonies in August 1619. This year’s gathering followed a contentious legal battle over exhibits describing the lives of nine people enslaved by George Washington while he lived at the Philadelphia presidential residence during the 1790s.

Krasner said the memorial and its educational materials would remain long after Trump and the White House ballroom were gone.

“In about 10 to 15 years, we are all going to be sitting here with smiles on our faces,” Krasner said. “And I’m going to have a paperweight sitting on my desk. And do you know what that paper weight’s going to be? It’s going to be a piece of the ballroom after we blow it up.”

Krasner said the demolition would occur during an “official ceremony,” with pieces of the ballroom sold as paperweights to reimburse taxpayers.

“And I will have one on my desk,” he said.

The White House responded by defending the ballroom as a necessary renovation intended to improve the executive mansion before the nation’s 250th anniversary. A Secret Service spokesperson said the agency investigates statements that could be perceived as threats against its protectees, but would not discuss protective intelligence operations.

The National Park Service removed the President’s House slavery panels in January under a 2025 executive order directing federal historic sites to revise displays that the administration considered disparaging toward the country’s founders. Philadelphia sued the Interior Department and Park Service, and a federal judge ordered the exhibit restored in February.

A unanimous federal appeals court panel ruled in June that Philadelphia did not have the legal authority to control exhibits at the federally owned site. Park workers installed replacement panels July 14 that still discuss slavery and the nine people enslaved by Washington but place greater emphasis on the presidency and Washington’s stated discomfort with slavery.

Philadelphia has asked the full 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider the ruling. That request remains pending, and the replacement panels remain in place.

Trump’s 90,000-square-foot ballroom is being built on the site of the former White House East Wing. Administration officials estimate the project will cost about $400 million and say construction is 65% complete.

A lower court ruled Trump exceeded his authority by demolishing the East Wing and beginning construction without congressional approval. Chief Justice John Roberts issued a temporary order Friday allowing construction to continue while the Supreme Court considers the administration’s appeal.