Months ago, Donald Trump announced his plan to build a gigantic, gaudy new “White House ballroom” on the east side of the WH campus. He actually said, repeatedly and on the record, that the plan was to build a big ballroom adjacent to the existing structure, and perhaps attach the ballroom to the mansion via some kind of breezeway. Like everything that comes out of that ugly orange man’s mouth, all of that was a lie. Several days ago, construction started on the ballroom. Scratch that – construction has NOT started, because they’re too busy demolishing the White House’s East Wing. On Wednesday, the White House confirmed that the entirety of the East Wing will be demolished by this weekend.
The White House is demolishing the entirety of the East Wing to make way for President Trump’s $200 million ballroom, a construction project that is far more extensive than he initially let on, a senior administration official said on Wednesday.
The tear-down should be finished by this weekend, according to the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the plans. When Mr. Trump first announced his plans for the ballroom, he pledged that the East Wing wouldn’t be touched by the construction.
“It’ll be views of the Washington Monument. It won’t interfere with the current building. It’ll be near it but not touching it,” the president said. “And pays total respect to the existing building, which I’m the biggest fan of.”
But, upon further evaluation, the White House determined it was cheaper and more structurally sound to demolish the East Wing to construct the ballroom, rather than build an addition, the official said. The new structure will also have enhanced security features, the official said.
The few wide-perspective shots of that side of the White House already showed just how extensive the project is, but it’s pretty crazy that Trump has been lying his ass off for months, and then mid-demolition, he’s like “oh year, we’re taking this whole thing down.” Historic preservationists are really upset, obviously:
Photos of construction teams knocking down parts of the East Wing, first revealed by The Washington Post on Monday, shocked preservationists, raised questions about White House overreach and lack of transparency, and sparked complaints from Democrats that President Donald Trump was damaging “the People’s House” to pursue a personal priority.
“They’re wrecking it,” said Martha Joynt Kumar, a political scientist and professor emeritus at Towson University in Maryland. “And these are changes that can’t be undone. They’re destroying that history forever.”
A White House spokesman said that the “entirety” of the East Wing would eventually be “modernized and rebuilt.”
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit created by Congress to help preserve historic buildings, sent a letter Tuesday to administration officials, warning that the planned 90,000-square-foot ballroom “will overwhelm the White House itself,” which is about 55,000 square feet. “We respectfully urge the Administration and the National Park Service to pause demolition until plans for the proposed ballroom go through the legally required public review processes,” Carol Quillen, National Trust’s CEO, said in a statement, citing two federal commissions that have traditionally reviewed White House additions.
White House officials dismissed the criticism as “manufactured outrage,” arguing that past presidents had pursued their own changes to the executive campus as necessary. They said that the privately funded ballroom will be a “bold, necessary addition” to the presidential grounds.
“For more than a century, U.S. Presidents have been renovating, expanding, and modernizing the White House to meet the needs of the present day,” the White House’s rapid-response team posted on social media, listing examples of prior campus construction.
The Treasury Department on Monday evening instructed employees not to take or share photos of the construction project without permission, according to a person who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail an internal email. The Treasury headquarters is next to the White House, with some of its offices providing a close view of the East Wing. But areas where the demolition is viewable are closed to the public, fueling criticism about the Trump administration’s lack of transparency.
One of the people who witnessed the demolition Tuesday said that views of the site from Treasury headquarters amplify the demolition, but a large part of the structure remained by late afternoon. However, it appeared that what remained was also headed for demolition, with no evidence that the structure was being protected and only jagged damage visible in the exposed building.
“U.S. Presidents have been renovating, expanding, and modernizing the White House to meet the needs of the present day.” Yeah, during the Cold War, the space UNDER the White House was dug out and filled with rooms/shelters and tunnels which could conceivably survive a massive bomb or terrorist attack. We’re not talking about security upgrades, nor are we talking about “Michelle Obama adding a vegetable garden.” Trump didn’t consult with anyone before ripping out the entire East Wing of the People’s House.
The White House: pic.twitter.com/JwpcrTcsTJ
— NewsWire (@NewsWire_US) October 22, 2025
a live look at the demolition of the White House’s East Wing for Trump’s ballroom pic.twitter.com/ecRTvuKzII
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 22, 2025
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Getty.
