WASHINGTON (AP) — The entire White House East Wing has been 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, has been turned into rubble, demolished 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 have 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 press briefing Thursday.
Trump said later Thursday that some $350 million had been 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 had 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 (8,361-square-meter) 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 (5,109 square meters) “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 had 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 actually is government property, not Trump's house.
Herb Hutchison, of Alabama, pointed out that past presidents had 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.”
Associated Press writer Seung Min Kim and video journalist River Zhang contributed to this report.
