Trump during a ballroom fundraising dinner at the White House. Photo / Demetrius Freeman, The Washington Post
Demolition crews today began tearing down part of the White House to build President Donald Trump’s long-desired ballroom despite his pledge that construction of the US$250 million ($435m) addition wouldn’t “interfere” with the existing building.
Construction teams were demolishing a portion of the East Wing, with a backhoe ripping through the structure, according to a photo shared with the Washington Post and two people who witnessed the activity and spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe it.
A cluster of people, including members of the Secret Service, stood on the steps of the Treasury Department to watch the construction unfold, said one of the people.
Sounds of construction were also audible on the White House campus, although the project was not easily visible to the public given fencing on the grounds.
Trump acknowledged the project in remarks in the White House’s East Room, gesturing to the wall behind him.
“Right on the other side, you have a lot of construction going on, which you might hear periodically,” the President said at an event honouring Louisiana baseball teams.
He subsequently posted on his Truth Social platform that the “much-needed project” had begun.
“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.,” the President wrote.
Democrats panned the project, with California Governor Gavin Newsom and other lawmakers arguing that Trump’s priorities and preferences were not aligned with average Americans.
“Trump’s billionaire ballroom. This is a disgrace. Welcome to the Second Gilded Age,” Representative Darren Soto (D-Florida) wrote on social media.
Trump has long touted his plans for a 8360sqm structure that would nearly double the footprint of the main building and its East and West wings.
He had also suggested that the construction would not affect the existing 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 during an executive order signing in July.
“It’s my favourite. It’s my favourite place. I love it.”
A White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe construction on the ballroom, confirmed that the demolition process on the East Wing began today.
Other parts of the project, such as efforts to preserve objects of historical value, have been under way for several weeks, the official said.
Officials declined to provide an explanation for Trump’s earlier comments that the new construction would not interfere with the existing building.
Officials have separately said that the ballroom would replace the East Wing, noting the many changes made to that structure long before Trump’s presidency.
“The East Wing was constructed in 1902 and has been renovated and changed many times, with a second storey added in 1942,” the White House said in July.
The Administration also said that it expected construction to begin by September, detailing plans to make some of the most significant changes to “the People’s House” in a century.
Trump originally estimated the project would cost US$200m to build but has since upped that to US$250m.
The National Park Service, which manages the White House grounds, did not respond to inquiries about how much of the East Wing would be destroyed.
In a 56-page document about maintaining the fundamental character of the White House and the surrounding grounds, the Park Service said in 2014 it would work with presidential administrations, the US Secret Service and other agencies “to ensure both the preservation and use of one of the most recognised houses in the world”.
The East Wing has traditionally been used by the first lady and her team. Offices for the president and his top deputies have long been located in the West Wing.
Trump last week also touted his planned ballroom during a dinner with executives from the tech, finance and defence industries, telling them that the project was fully financed after receiving donations as large as US$25m from dozens of companies, including Apple, Amazon, Lockheed Martin and Coinbase. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post.)
Trump hosted that dinner in the East Room, currently the largest room in the White House - a frequent frustration for the President, who has insisted the building needs a bigger venue to host large groups of VIPs.
He also has said he repeatedly offered to construct a ballroom, but officials in the Obama and Biden administrations turned him down.
“I was going to build a beautiful, beautiful ballroom like I have at Mar-a-Lago,” Trump said in February, adding that he had made the offer to the Biden Administration. “It was going to cost about US$100m. I offered to do it, and I never heard back.”
Trump has said the ballroom will seat up to 650 people, more than triple the capacity of the East Room.
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