The new ballroom is set to host 999 guests. Photo / Getty Images
For those who accuse Donald Trump of taking a wrecking ball to the American political establishment, there could hardly be a more perfect metaphor.
A gaping hole of twisted metal, bricks and wood now stands in place of the White House’s East Wing, where Trump plans to build a $428 million (£185m) ballroom.
It is the start of what he says is a long-overdue renovation, fulfilling his ambition of hosting world leaders in a dining room to match the grandeur of the royal palaces of old Europe.
The old guard are less than impressed.
“It’s not his house. It’s your house. And he’s destroying it,” Hillary Clinton wrote to her followers online, posting a picture of the demolition job that began this week.
The United States President has cast the project as a gift to the American people, arguing it would be used for “generations to come” and came with “zero cost to the American taxpayer”.
But the speed and extent of the building work has nevertheless come as a shock after Trump said in July that his ballroom “wouldn’t interfere with the current building”.
One contractor working at the site told The Telegraph that the speed of the work was “nuts”.
“Right now, it’s a big dirt pit with a couple of mountains of scrap, but hopefully it’s going to look nice when it’s done,” Joe, 34, said.
The row has snowballed partly thanks to an edict from the White House not to take and share pictures of the construction work. The Telegraph obtained its own images from sources nearby.
Trump has long complained that the East Room, the property’s largest entertaining space, is too small. It holds about 200 people, meaning that guests for state dinners have to be seated in a marquee on the White House lawn, or in overflow rooms.
The new ballroom will accommodate 999 people, according to the President. At 90,000sq ft (8361sq m), the building will dwarf the main house, leading critics to warn the extension will make the White House look lopsided.
Trump said on Truth Social that the project would be privately funded by “many generous patriots, great American companies, and yours truly”. A lump sum of $22m is coming from the Google-owned platform YouTube, as part of a settlement for a 2021 lawsuit Trump brought against the company.
In July, the President said of possible damage to the East Wing, the traditional home of the first lady and her staff: “It will be near it but not touching it and pays total respect to the existing building, which I’m the biggest fan of”.
The White House appears to have moved ahead with the work despite not yet having sign-off from the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC), which oversees the construction of government buildings in the Washington area.
Will Scharf, chairman of the commission, is also one of Trump’s top aides, and has said the NCPC does not have jurisdiction over building work at the property.
Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday – with a scale model of the ballroom placed on the table in front of him – that the old East Wing had to go after all.
He said that after a “tremendous amount of study with some of the best architects in the world” it was determined that “knocking it down” was the only option.
“It was never thought of as being much,” he reasoned. “It was a very small building.”
Conservationists have warned that Trump is demolishing a substantial chunk of the historic building without going through the proper planning process.
“Most concerning is that they’re just tearing down the East Wing without any public submission as to what is going to be built in its place,” Rebecca Miller, the executive director of the DC Preservation League, told CNN.
On Thursday, passers-by added had their say. Sarah, 40, from Connecticut, said: “As a history teacher I think it’s devastating.
“The President said we’re living in a second ‘Gilded Age’, so it’ll probably be covered with fake gold. I just hope the integrity of our history will be considered.”
Christina Kohla, 38, from Phoenix, Arizona, is on holiday in the capital and said “it would have been nice to see a bit more” of the White House, which has been partly screened off from view.
She added: “The cost of the construction is mind-boggling, especially given everything that’s going on in the world”.
On Wednesday Trump insisted he had been clear from the start about the plans.
“I haven’t been transparent? I’ve shown this to everybody that would listen,” he said while displaying building plans in the Oval Office.
Trump has, for months, had two models of the ballroom on a tabletop in the White House, quizzing all visitors about which they preferred. Most chose the larger one, to which the President agreed, according to CNN.
Despite working closely with architects, one White House official said the President has served as a “project manager”, obsessing over small details from how big the windows will be to the style of the columns lining its walls.
“He’s more of a Corinthian man,” the official told Axios.
It is just the latest renovation project Trump has broken ground on since returning to the White House, having uprooted ancient trees, paved over the Rose Garden lawn, installed a giant flag pole and gilded the Oval Office.
The Rose Garden required work because it posed a hazard for women whose high heels would get stuck in the turf, he claimed.
In place of the grass now sits a gleaming white patio that bears a striking resemblance to a popular feature at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, complete with similar yellow-and-white striped umbrellas.
For weeks before its construction, the President questioned White House visitors on their preferred choice of tiling for the patio. And such is his attention to detail that when a contractor managed to leave a “gash” in the final product, they were banished from the White House for good.
“Now, I’ll replace the stone, charge the contractor, and never let that contractor work at the White House again,” Trump said in a furious rant on Truth Social, explaining that “surfaces are very important to me as a builder”.
With construction work on the ballroom under way, the President already has his architectural eye set on another prize, floating the idea to erect a giant arch to serve as a grand entrance into the city.
“Let’s build something like the Arc de Triomphe in that space, it would be beautiful when you drive or fly in,” he told a White House visitor a few weeks ago, according to Axios.
His supporters quickly latched on to the proposal, dubbing it the “Arc de Trump”.
The White House ballroom is not the first time Trump has left his personal stamp on a property.
A former aide told The Telegraph that when he moved into Mar-a-Lago, he converted the former catering room into an office to avoid moving into one of the bungalows, which would mean losing a revenue stream.
“What he does in his own house, he’s also doing in the White House,” the aide said.
Yet for Trump, a President who boasted this week that he is a better President than George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, legacy is just as important as any practical considerations.
“I think he wants to be remembered in a way that honours his legacy,” the former aide said.
“He’s rebuilding this country, he’s rebuilding the government, but you have to deconstruct before you can construct. This is a classic Donald Trump.”