WASHINGTON — The entire White House East Wing was demolished as President Donald Trump moves forward with construction of a ballroom, according to photos taken Thursday by The Associated Press.
The East Wing, where first ladies created history, planned state dinners and promoted causes, is now history itself. The two-story structure of drawing rooms and offices, including workspace for first ladies and their staffs, was turned into rubble as part of the Republican president’s plan to build a ballroom nearly twice the size of the White House at an updated cost of $300 million.
Trump said Wednesday that keeping the East Wing as is would have “hurt a very, very expensive, beautiful building,” referring to the ballroom that he said presidents wanted for years. He said he "and some friends of mine” will pay for the ballroom at no cost to taxpayers.
Higher tab for the new ballroom
The proposed ballroom was announced as a $200 million project in July, a cost Trump publicly updated to $250 million last week. On Thursday, he put the price tag “in the neighborhood” of $300 million.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt attributed the demolition and higher building cost to changes that happen with any construction.
“The plans changed when the president heard counsel from the architects and the construction companies who said that in order for this East Wing to be modern and beautiful for many, many years to come, for it to be a truly strong and stable structure, this phase one that we’re now in was necessary and the president wants to do right by the ‘People’s House,'" Leavitt said at her news briefing Thursday.
Trump said later Thursday that about $350 million was raised for the project, but he remained vague about his personal contribution.
“I won't be able to tell you until I finish,” he told reporters, “but I’ll donate whatever is needed.”
White House chafes at criticism of Trump's plan
The White House has been pushing back against criticism of the ballroom plan and elimination of the East Wing by noting the history of add-ons to the Executive Mansion during its more than 200-year existence. Trump aides argue that the president's plan follows that history, even though the proposed ballroom would be the biggest of all the modifications to the White House.
Trump on Wednesday lashed out at a journalist who questioned him about criticism that he has not been transparent about what he's doing to one of the most recognized buildings in the world.
“I’ve shown this to everybody that would listen,” he said in the Oval Office, referring to copies of renderings of the ballroom he was holding.
Leavitt said the public would continue to be apprised of changes but encouraged everyone to “just trust the process.” She said a more modern East Wing would be built along with the ballroom.
Demolition of the East Wing came as a surprise
Trump allowed the East Wing demolition to begin without advance warning Monday and despite not having approval from the relevant government agencies with jurisdiction over construction on federal buildings.
Preservationists urged the Trump administration to halt the demolition, for which approval was not required, Leavitt said Thursday, until plans for the 90,000-square-foot ballroom could go through the required public review process.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation said the review process, which includes public comment, would “provide a crucial opportunity for transparency and broad engagement — values that have guided preservation of the White House under every administration going back to the public competition in 1792 that produced the building’s original design.”
In a letter, the Trust also expressed concern to the National Capital Planning Commission, the National Park Service and the Commission of Fine Arts that the size of the proposed ballroom will overwhelm the Executive Mansion, which stands at 55,000 square feet “and may permanently disrupt the carefully balanced classical design of the White House.”
Both commissions have jurisdiction over changes to the White House. The Park Service manages the White House grounds and has a role in the process as several trees on the South Lawn have been cut down as part of the construction. Both agencies currently are closed because of the government shutdown. Trump installed top aide Will Scharf as chairman of the planning commission.
The National Park Service said in August, after the White House announced the ballroom project, that it provided historic preservation guidance and support as part of a broader consultation process. It said final decisions are made by the Executive Office of the President.
East Wing history
The East Wing, which is across East Executive Avenue from the Treasury Department, has been the traditional base of operations for the first lady and her staff, along with the social office, military office and the visitors office, among others. Those operations have been temporarily relocated to workspace elsewhere on the White House campus.
The East Wing is where visitors entered for public tours and to attend events, such as White House state dinners, holiday and other receptions, and events featuring the president. Tours were halted in late summer in preparation for the ballroom construction.
The wing also sat atop an emergency bunker and wrapped around the first lady's garden, which is named after Jacqueline Kennedy.
Some tourists reacted positively to the project.
“It's his house. He can do with it, you know, he’s spending his money and not my taxpayer money. It's OK with me," Erich Habelt of California said. "And as with any old house, things need to be renovated.”
The White House is government property, not Trump's house.
Herb Hutchison of Alabama pointed out that past presidents added to the White House. Hutchison said friends who visit Washington talk often "about the need for a bigger meeting space or a hall close to the White House, and it sounds like this is going to do it. So, I don’t see it as any more than making something better than it was before.”
What lawmakers are saying about Trump's demolition of the East Wing
The White House saw the addition of the East Wing in 1942 to house additional staff and offices. The White House Historical Association says the construction was controversial because of its timing during wartime. Congressional Republicans labeled the expenditure as wasteful, with some accusing Franklin Delano Roosevelt of using the project to bolster his presidency’s image.
Current Republican lawmakers pointed to FDR's swimming pool addition, now covered over, and cited President Barack Obama's basketball court, a tennis court adapted so that it could be used for tennis and basketball.
William Taft added the Oval Office, noted Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. “The ballroom is going to be glorious,” he said.
Across the Capitol, Democratic senators incorporated the teardown photos into Sen. Jeff Merkley's 22 hour-plus speech on the Senate floor.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., showed Merkley a picture of the smashed East Wing and asked the Oregon senator to describe what he saw and the significance of it.
“Here we have evidence of the president tearing down a symbol of our Republic and building a symbol that is really a symbol about authoritarian power, about a government that serves the rich,” Merkley said.
Trump says the White House needs a large entertaining space and complained that the East Room, which holds about 200 people and is the current largest space in the White House, is too small. He frowned on the past practice of presidents hosting state dinners and other large events in tents on the South Lawn.
The White House said the ballroom will be ready for use well before Trump’s term ends in January 2029, an ambitious timeline. Trump said “me and some friends of mine” will pay for the ballroom, at no cost to taxpayers.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer's opening remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday sought to tie the president's work on the East Wing to the current government shutdown, saying Trump was not focused on dealing with the issue of threatened health care coverage for millions of Americans but on “vanity projects like this one that don't do anything to benefit the American people. They only benefit Trump and his ego.”
Republican senators at times were dismissive of questions about the East Wing teardown.
Asked whether he welcomed the renovations, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., replied, “I'm not much into architecture. I'm not a very good architect.”
Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., said that the difference between Trump's ballroom and a litany of prior construction projects that he recounted for reporters was that taxpayers wouldn't be funding this one.
“I mean, you've got a builder who has any eye for construction and for excellence," Mullin said. "What better person would you want to renovate the White House?”
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut took issue with Republicans comparing the ballroom to other renovation projects over the years.
“They filled in the pool. They may have taken out a bowling alley. They haven't destroyed an entire wing of the White House in a way that is irreversible,” he said. “…I think it is just heartbreaking.”
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CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misidentified Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer's title.
Associated Press writer Seung Min Kim and video journalist River Zhang contributed to this report.
