The scale, speed and lack of transparency we’re seeing from President Donald Trump’s determination to build a 90,000-square foot ballroom makes it by far the most absurd — and potentially unethical — “renovation” project any president has undertaken.
Former officials and historical experts were appalled at the images of demolition equipment ripping through the White House’s East Wing were first published by The Washington Post Monday. The outcry only grew Tuesday as the rapid renovation spread further, not merely taking down the facade outside the East Wing but tearing haphazardly into the building. A White House official confirmed Wednesday that the plan is now to raze the whole structure rather than tagging on the ballroom as an addition.
The White House’s press team posted a thread on X, formerly known as Twitter, to claim that the destruction was merely a continuation of a process that presidents have undertaken for more than a century. It’s true that there have been several major overhauls to the Executive Mansion in that time, many of which drew consternation over their scope, their disregard for history or their expense. But the project Trump has undertaken is on another level entirely.
Given his past as a real estate developer, his obsession with size and grandeur and his questionable taste in internal decor, Trump’s vision for a White House ballroom comes as little surprise.
Given his past as a real estate developer, his obsession with size and grandeur and his questionable taste in internal decor, Trump’s vision for a White House ballroom comes as little surprise. During the initial announcement in July, he claimed that the addition “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. It’s my favorite. It’s my favorite place. I love it.” (Trump reportedly calling the White House “a dump” during his first term, which he has denied, and spending a big chunk of his second term staying at the properties he owns, doesn’t exactly support the idea it’s his “favorite place.”)
In his Truth Social post Monday announcing that the project was underway, the president hedged a bit more on that initial promise: “Completely separate from the White House itself, the East Wing is being fully modernized as part of this process.” While the East and West Wings are later additions to the core Executive Mansion, each of which caused its own major concerns when first built, trying to say that either is “separate” from the White House is a major stretch.
Both wings originated during President Theodore Roosevelt’s administration. The West Wing was originally a temporary structure to house the growing presidential staff away from the residences. The construction required destroying the Victorian-era conservatory greenhouses that previously occupied the grounds. The pearl-clutching was off the charts, as captured in a 1902 article from The Washington Times: “Unfortunately the west terrace ends in an awful blot on the landscape, the new ‘temporary’ offices for the President. It is to be hoped that ‘temporary’ does not mean a temporizing with the American people to tide over their first wrath and then perpetuate the hideous little doghouse as a permanent thing.”
The East Wing, on the other hand, began life as an entryway for Roosevelt’s guests to make their way through a corridor to the residence with a long cloakroom for coats and hats. His great-nephew, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, would later greatly augment the structure starting in 1942, adding a second story and more office space. The expansion was done mostly to cover up the secret construction of a bunker underneath the White House in case Germany’s nascent long-range missile program was ever able to reach Washington. Since then, it has (or had) become the public-facing arm of the White House, with the first floor devoted to tours and the second populated with the office of the first lady and her staff.
The core White House itself has undergone many changes over the decades, both cosmetic and structural. A set of ornate stained glass windows designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany himself, installed under President Chester A. Arthur, was later removed during the elder Roosevelt’s renovations, along with the rest of Tiffany’s decorative choices. A few decades after Teddy’s exit, President Calvin Coolidge also undertook a major renovation, replacing the roof, which was in danger of collapsing, and adding a third floor in the process. (The major scandal of that project: a move to replace the French-influenced decor with a colonial-style motif instead.)
The most large-scale overhaul took place under President Harry Truman, when swaying chandeliers, deeply sagging floors and a piano leg crashing through a floor into the Family Dining Room revealed that the whole thing was in danger of imploding under the weight of past haphazard remodeling. Even a GOP-dominated Congress that didn’t often get along with Truman had to agree that the money for the project was needed, especially after a tour of the many structural issues. He and his wife, Bess, had to move out of the White House while the building was entirely gutted with only the stone exterior remaining in place. (The West Wing remained open and operational the entire time.)
Truman was finally allowed to move back in in 1952 after more than three years of reconstruction work. But according to the Truman Library Institute, he wasn’t overly impressed with what roughly $70 million in today’s dollars had purchased: “With all the trouble and worry it is worth it — but not 5 ½ million dollars! If I could have had charge of the construction, it would have been done for half the money and in half the time!” The estimated $250 million price tag for Trump’s ballroom addition is set to be at least three times as much as the total renovation of the 1950s. But unlike past overhauls, the president isn’t waiting for Congress to appropriate the funds. Instead, Trump has said that the whole of the project will be covered by “many generous Patriots, Great American Companies, and, yours truly.” Trump claimed at a dinner with major business executives last week that the project was fully funded after donations from multiple companies, some as high as $25 million. But there’s been no official list provided yet of precisely which companies had donated how much or how exactly that money will be spent. (Comcast, which owns MSNBC and NBCUniversal, was among the companies represented at that dinner and on a list of top donors.) The lack of funding visibility raises concerns that the whole thing could be yet another way for Trump to demand tribute in exchange for access to his beneficence. Those concerns are only exacerbated by the rapid pace of the transformation, with no forewarning ahead of the demolition crew’s arrival Monday. The White House said Tuesday that it will be submitting its ballroom plans to the National Capital Planning Commission for review — but the announcement was made only after the demolition had already begun. The commission, which is led by a Trump appointee, is all but guaranteed to sign off on the changes, which the National Trust for Historic Preservation warned in a letter Tuesday will likely “overwhelm the White House itself — it is 55,000 square feet,” compared with the 90,000-square-foot proposed ballroom. It’s unclear how long this supposed improvement will take, given Trump’s history of project management and reported unwillingness to pay contractors. But there’s nothing at this point that can stop the bulldozers’ carnage or undo the damage that’s already been done. While not as psychologically damaging as the slide into authoritarianism that Trump has unleashed, the gaudy, gilded monstrosity that may eventually be attached to the People’s House will serve as a reminder of how much his influence will be felt long after he is gone.
Hayes Brown is a writer and editor for MS NOW. He focuses on politics and policymaking at the federal level, including Congress and the White House. 
