Demolition crews began tearing down part of the East Wing of the White House this week as construction on President Trump’s 90,000-square-foot ballroom got underway. And the president welcomed the sound.
“You probably hear the beautiful sound of construction to the back,” Trump said at an unrelated event in the Rose Garden on Tuesday. “That’s music to my ears. I love that sound. Other people don’t like it. I love it.”
On Monday afternoon, Trump announced on Truth Social that ground had been broken on the $250 million project, which he said is “being privately funded by many generous Patriots, Great American Companies, and, yours truly.”
According to CBS News, donors include Google, R.J. Reynolds, Booz Allen Hamilton, Lockheed Martin, Palantir and NextEra Energy, as well as Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzman. It’s unclear how much money Trump himself is contributing to the effort.
“For more than 150 years, every President has dreamt about having a Ballroom at the White House to accommodate people for grand parties, State Visits, etc.,” Trump wrote.
He added: “The East Wing is being fully modernized as part of this process, and will be more beautiful than ever when it is complete!”
When the ballroom project was announced in July, Trump pledged that construction wouldn’t “interfere with the current building.”
“It’ll be near it but not touching it — and pays total respect to the existing building,” the president said at the time.
But a White House official told ABC News on Wednesday that the “entirety of the East Wing will be modernized” during the renovation.
‘It’s your house. And he’s destroying it.’
Work crews continue the demolition of the facade of the East Wing on Tuesday. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
The move sparked fierce criticism from Democrats, who condemned the president for destroying a historic piece of the nation’s most iconic building and spending his time focusing on the ballroom project while the government is shut down.
“Trump is tearing down the East Wing of the White House to build a $250 million golden ballroom for himself and his donors,” the Democratic Party wrote in a post on social media on Monday.
Others accused Trump of putting his own vanity above the needs of the country.
“Oh you’re trying to say the cost of living is skyrocketing? Donald Trump can’t hear you over the sound of bulldozers demolishing a wing of the White House to build a new grand ballroom,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren wrote.
“The demolition of the East Wing feels very symbolic of what Trump is doing to our democracy. He’ll lie about protecting it, then destroy it right in front of your face,” wrote Sen. Mazie Hirono.
Trump’s opponent in the 2016 presidential race, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, also weighed in. “It’s not his house. It’s your house. And he’s destroying it,” she wrote.
White House defends construction
President Trump at a ballroom fundraising dinner in the East Room of the White House on Oct. 15. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
The White House released a statement on Tuesday afternoon dismissing criticism of the construction as “manufactured outrage” from “unhinged leftists and their Fake News allies.”
It called the ballroom a “bold, necessary addition that echoes the storied history of improvements and renovations from commanders-in-chief to keep the executive residence as a beacon of American excellence.”
Trump has said he envisioned the space resembling the ballroom at his private residence Mar-a-Lago.
According to the White House, it will be able to seat 650 people — more than three times the 200-person seated capacity of the East Room. (On Monday, Trump said it would be able to hold “999” people.)
In July, the White House announced that construction on the project, which was then estimated to cost $200 million, would begin in September and was expected to be completed “long before the end of President Trump’s term.”
When was the East Wing built?
Heavy machinery near the facade of the East Wing. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
According to the White House archives, President Theodore Roosevelt built the East Terrace, which later became the East Wing, in 1902. The structure was expanded in 1942 to cover the construction of an underground bunker, now known as the Presidential Emergency Operations Center.
The East Wing has been used by first ladies since 1977, when Rosalynn Carter established her offices there.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation sent a letter urging the White House to “pause demolition until plans for the proposed ballroom go through the legally required public review processes.”
“While the National Trust acknowledges the utility of a larger meeting space at the White House, we are deeply concerned that the massing and height of the proposed new construction will overwhelm the White House itself,” Dr. Carol Quillen, the trust’s president, wrote in the letter.
Treasury Department warns staff not to share photos
A jarring photo of heavy machinery ripping down parts of the East Wing, taken from the adjacent Treasury Department, was published by the Washington Post on Monday afternoon and shared widely on social media.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Treasury Department officials warned employees on Monday night not to take and share photos of the White House construction without permission.
A Treasury Department spokesperson told the Journal that “carelessly shared photographs of the White House complex could reveal sensitive items, potentially including security features or confidential structural details.”
“Out of an abundance of caution, we have urged our employees to avoid sharing these images,” the spokesperson added.
