President Donald Trump broke ground on a new $200 million ballroom addition to the White House on Monday, and not everyone is happy about it. The president originally said his plan was to build the new structure without disturbing the East Wing, but Trump confirmed on Wednesday that much of the eastern portion of the building is being demolished.
“Completely separate from the White House itself,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The East Wing is being fully modernized as part of this process, and will be more beautiful than ever when it is complete!”
The renovations are being paid for by Trump and private donors, according to the president.
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East Wing demolished for expansion
Initially, Trump said the ballroom construction wouldn’t impact the East Wing.
“It’ll be views of the Washington Monument. It won’t interfere with the current building,” Trump said when sharing his plans for a ballroom when it was first announced. “It’ll be near it but not touching it. And pays total respect to the existing building, which I’m the biggest fan of.”
However, the entire East Wing is being demolished to make way for the ballroom and event space.
On Wednesday, the president was asked why he changed his mind regarding the construction. Trump said, “Certain areas are being left.”
“We determined that after a really tremendous amount of study with some of the best architects in the world, we determined that really knocking it down, trying to use a little section, you know, the East Wing was not much,” Trump said while addressing reporters in the Oval Office. “It was a very small building and rather than allowing that to hurt a very expensive, beautiful building that, frankly, they’ve been after for years.”
The White House said the new ballroom would make it possible to host more and larger events, including ceremonies or gatherings for world leaders, representatives of foreign countries and other dignitaries.
Criticism and historical context
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticized President Trump’s decision to demolish the East Wing, writing on X, “It’s not his house. It’s your house. And he’s destroying it.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called the criticism “fake outrage” while appearing on Fox News.
“Nearly every single president who’s lived in this beautiful White House behind me has made modernizations and renovations of their own,” Leavitt added. “In fact, presidents for decades in the modern time have joked about how they wished they had a larger event space here at the White House, that could hold hundreds more people than the current East Room and State Dining Rooms can.”
The White House also provided several examples of times the White House building had been renovated over the years:
- Teddy Roosevelt built the West Wing in 1902.
- In 1909, President William Howard Taft expanded the West Wing and created the first Oval Office.
- In 1933, under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the White House indoor pool was built. FDR used the pool for physical therapy due to his polio. The pool, located in the West Wing, was converted into the White House Press Room in 1970 during the Nixon administration. FDR later built the East Wing and added an underground bunker in 1942.
- In 1952, President Harry Truman gutted the White House, leaving most of the walls in place, and added a bowling alley.
- In 2009, President Barack Obama added a basketball court.
While the White House is designated as a National Historic Landmark, it’s one of just three sites that are exempt from the National Historic Preservation Act, requiring federal oversight before changes can be made to the structure.
