Demolition work began Monday on the East Wing of the White House, marking the start of a major construction project to build U.S. President Donald Trump’s long-planned ballroom.
Construction crews used heavy equipment to tear down parts of the East Wing’s facade as the $250 million project moved into its first phase.
By late afternoon, reporters near the Treasury Department could see sections of the building’s front stripped away, with piles of debris, including window panes, building blocks, and wires gathered.
Highlights
- Demolition began on the White House East Wing to build Trump’s $250 million ballroom inspired by Mar-a-Lago and Versailles.
- The new 90,000-square-foot ballroom will triple the East Room’s capacity, holding up to 999 guests for large events.
- Trump previously claimed construction wouldn’t disrupt the existing building, but demolition shows major changes underway.
Demolition work began on the East Wing of the White House
Image credits: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
The East Wing, traditionally home to the offices of the first lady and her staff, will be replaced by a new 90,000-square-foot structure resembling the event room at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, which was inspired by Louis XIV’s Palace of Versailles.
The project represents one of the most extensive structural changes to the presidential residence in decades, comparable in scale only to the post-WWII reconstruction overseen by President Harry S. Truman in the late 1940s.
While Trump had previously promised that construction wouldn’t “interfere with the current building,” the demolition of the East Wing suggests that the new addition will significantly alter the White House complex.
Image credits: The White House
“It won’t interfere with the current building. It won’t be. It’ll be near it but not touching it — and pays total respect to the existing building, which I’m the biggest fan of,” Trump said in July. “It’s my favorite. It’s my favorite place. I love it.”
The White House did not immediately explain the discrepancy between Trump’s earlier assurances and the visible demolition activity now underway.
In a statement this summer, officials noted that the East Wing had already undergone numerous renovations since it was first built in 1902.
“The East Wing was constructed in 1902 and has been renovated and changed many times, with a second story added in 1942,” the White House said in July.
Image credits: The White House
As construction began on Monday, Trump was meeting with a collegiate baseball championship team inside the White House.
“You know, we’re building right behind us, we’re building a ballroom,” he told the group. “It just started today.”
Trump said the new ballroom would accommodate up to 999 guests, more than triple the capacity of the East Room, currently the largest space in the mansion.
Trump expressed frustration with the East Room’s limitations and described the new ballroom as necessary for hosting official ceremonies and large gatherings.
In July, Trump criticized how large gatherings often had to be held in temporary tents on the lawn.
“People schlopping down to the tent—it’s not a pretty sight. The women with their lovely evening gowns, and their hair all done, and they’re a mess by the time they get [there],” he said.
“No president knew how to build a ballroom,” Trump said in July during a meeting at his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland. “I could take this one, drop it right down there, and it would be beautiful.”
Trump had assured people that the construction wouldn’t interfere with the current building
Image credits: The White House/Flickr
Last week, Trump hosted his deep-pocketed friends from the tech, finance, and defense industries.
He told them the project was fully financed, but he received $25 million worth of donations from companies like Apple, Amazon, Lockheed Martin, and Coinbase.
“A couple of you sitting here [were] saying, ‘Uh, sir, would $25 million be appropriate?’” Trump said at the dinner. “I said, ‘I’ll take it.’ You know, it doesn’t take too many 25[million]s to get it done.”
The East Wing’s demolition has also required the relocation of staff members. According to White House officials, some team members of First Lady Melania Trump had packed up their offices in preparation for the disruption.
California Governor Gavin Newsom took to X to share an image of bulldozers destroying the East Wing. “Ripping apart the White House just like he’s ripping apart the Constitution,” he wrote.
The Democrat Party also posted an image from the construction site, claiming, “Trump is tearing down the East Wing of the White House to build a $250 million golden ballroom for himself and his donors.”
White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung responded to the criticism.
“Construction has always been a part of the evolution of the White House,” Cheung wrote on X. “Losers who are quick to criticize need to stop their pearl clutching and understand the building needs to be modernized. Otherwise you’re just living in the past.”
Trump, a former real estate developer, tore down the old Bonwit Teller building on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan in 1980 to build the Trump Tower.
The $250 million construction project has been funded by private donors
Image credits: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
He then promised to preserve the limestone friezes that were in the old building, but destroyed them regardless.
In 1990, during a conversation with Vanity Fair journalist Marie Brenner, Trump asked, “What do you think? Do you think blowing up the sculptures has hurt me?”
She answered with a yes.
“Who cares?” he responded.