President Donald Trump left his critics in disbelief on Monday with his latest verbal detour as he spent nearly two minutes of a ceremony for Medal of Honour recipients bragging about his “beautiful ballroom.”

“We have a lot of great service members here with us too in this beautiful building,” the president said during a White House ceremony. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

That was enough to launch Trump into one of his favourite subjects: the massive ballroom now under construction on the White House grounds.

“See that nice drape?” Trump said, gesturing toward the curtains. “When that comes down right now, you see a very, very deep hole. But in about a year and a half from now, you’re gonna see a very, very beautiful building.”

Trump said he liked the current doors and drapes on the building and indicated that he’d like to keep them in place.

“I picked those drapes in my first term,” Trump said. “I always liked gold, but I think we can save a lot of money. I just saved, I just saved curtains… and it’ll be spectacular, it’ll be the most beautiful ballroom. I believe it because I built many a ballroom. I believe it’s gonna be the most beautiful ballroom anywhere in the world.”

Trump wasn’t done with his digression yet.

Next, he said first lady Melania Trump isn’t a fan of the construction noise.

“She said, ‘Will the pile drivers ever stop?’ You know, they go from 6 in the morning ’til 11:30 in the evening,” he said. “Can you imagine? Here? You know what? To me, that’s a beautiful sound. She doesn’t like it. I love it.”

Then, he turned to the cost of the ballroom, which he said would be funded by private donors.

“It’ll be under budget, ahead of schedule,” Trump said. “It’ll be 400 million or less. Most people say 400 million or more. No, it’ll be less.”

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Trump next went back to the first lady’s feelings on the matter.

“But my wife isn’t thrilled. She said, ‘this is getting crazy,’” Trump recalled. “I said, ‘Don’t worry about it, we’ll be all finished up in a few months’.”

Finally, Trump returned to the topic of the day: honouring Retired Command Sgt. Maj. Terry P. Richardson with a Medal of Honour for his actions in Vietnam, as well as bestowing the award posthumously on Staff Sgt. Michael H. Ollis (for Afghanistan) and Master Sgt. Roderick W. Edmonds (WWII).

But some critics said Trump ― who never seems to miss an opportunity to talk about his ballroom ― shouldn’t have gone off-topic during so sombre an occasion as he honours American service members at the same time others are at risk due to the new war in the Middle East.