Trump begins East Wing demolition for ballroom
The president’s new construction will cost $250 million
What happened
Demolition crews Monday began ripping down the facade of the White House’s East Wing to build President Donald Trump’s $250 million ballroom.
The White House went ahead with the demolition “despite not yet having sign-off from the National Capital Planning Commission, which approves construction work to government buildings in the Washington area,” The Associated Press said. Trump had pledged in July that the ballroom “won’t interfere with the current building” and will “be near it but not touching it.”
Who said what
Trump’s promise not to “interfere” with the White House structure “always seemed unrealistic given how big the plans were,” The New York Times said. The proposed 90,000-square-foot ballroom would be “nearly double the size of the existing structure,” and the East Wing was “one of the last pieces of the White House complex he hadn’t yet started to make over in his own image.”
“Democrats panned the project,” The Washington Post said. “Seeing the White House torn apart is really emblematic of the times we’re in,” Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) said on social media. The funding of the project, from wealthy private donors and companies feted by Trump at a White House dinner last week, has also fueled ethical concerns about access-buying.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
What next?
The Treasury Department, headquartered next door to the East Wing, “instructed employees not to share photos of the demolition” from their “front-row seat” after Monday’s images “went viral,” The Wall Street Journal said. The White House said construction should be completed “before Trump’s second term wraps in 2029,” The Hill said.
-
The Olympic timekeepers keeping the Games on trackUnder the Radar Swiss watchmaking giant Omega has been at the finish line of every Olympic Games for nearly 100 years
-
Will increasing tensions with Iran boil over into war?Today’s Big Question President Donald Trump has recently been threatening the country
-
Corruption: The spy sheikh and the presidentFeature Trump is at the center of another scandal
-
Judge orders Washington slavery exhibit restoredSpeed Read The Trump administration took down displays about slavery at the President’s House Site in Philadelphia
-
Kurt Olsen: Trump’s ‘Stop the Steal’ lawyer playing a major White House roleIn the Spotlight Olsen reportedly has access to significant US intelligence
-
Hyatt chair joins growing list of Epstein files losersSpeed Read Thomas Pritzker stepped down as executive chair of the Hyatt Hotels Corporation over his ties with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell
-
Judge blocks Hegseth from punishing Kelly over videoSpeed Read Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pushed for the senator to be demoted over a video in which he reminds military officials they should refuse illegal orders
-
Trump’s EPA kills legal basis for federal climate policySpeed Read The government’s authority to regulate several planet-warming pollutants has been repealed
-
House votes to end Trump’s Canada tariffsSpeed Read Six Republicans joined with Democrats to repeal the president’s tariffs
-
Bondi, Democrats clash over Epstein in hearingSpeed Read Attorney General Pam Bondi ignored survivors of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and demanded that Democrats apologize to Trump
-
El Paso airspace closure tied to FAA-Pentagon standoffSpeed Read The closure in the Texas border city stemmed from disagreements between the Federal Aviation Administration and Pentagon officials over drone-related tests
