Ballroom build begins: It鈥檚 not just norms Trump鈥檚 bulldozing in Washington
Work continues on the demolition of a part of the East Wing of the White House, Oct. 21, 2025, in Washington, before construction of a new ballroom.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
Washington
The images are arresting. Where a portion of the stately East Wing of the White House once stood, there鈥檚 now a demolition site 鈥� complete with construction equipment and debris, the side of the building completely torn off.
In its place, if all goes according to plan, will arise the 90,000-square-foot, $250 million ballroom that President Donald Trump announced in July, a grand event space that will dwarf the existing 55,000-square-foot executive mansion.
To Washington denizens and tourists alike, it鈥檚 a shocking sight. President Trump, after all, had stated that the construction wouldn鈥檛 鈥渋nterfere with the current building.鈥� The new ballroom will be the biggest structural change to the White House since the renovation and expansion of the East Wing in 1942.
Why We Wrote This
President Trump鈥檚 new ballroom, and proposed arch, will reportedly be funded by private donors. But beyond expense, his modus operandi seems to be to go for it and deal with any consequences later.
Tuesday morning, a day after demolition began, a scrum of White House press photographers with a ladder and telephoto lenses gathered outside the fenced perimeter to capture what they could through the trees and around other obstacles. The best photos have come from inside the neighboring Treasury Department, though .
Late Tuesday, the Washington Post reported that 鈥渕uch of the East Wing鈥� had been destroyed, . The East Wing includes offices for the first lady, her team, and the White House social secretary.
For Mr. Trump, a real estate developer by profession, the ballroom project is by far the biggest example yet of how his public and private personas have merged. Since his second inauguration in January, he has moved swiftly to put his own touches on his residence and workspace 鈥� adorning the Oval Office with gold filigree, paving the Rose Garden and turning it into a private cafe, and adding 88-foot-tall flagpoles to the North and South Lawns.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts 鈥� which Mr. Trump took over in February as chair 鈥� is also getting a makeover, as is the bathroom in the White House鈥檚 famed Lincoln bedroom. No detail is too small, including the type of grass planted in the capital鈥檚 public spaces, even the traffic circles.
鈥淚 know more about grass than any human being, I think, anywhere in the world,鈥� Mr. Trump, owner of many world-class golf courses,
For that matter, no project is too big. The president has announced plans for a grand arch 鈥� similar to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris 鈥� to be constructed on a traffic circle at the end of the Arlington Memorial Bridge, between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. At a dinner last week for donors contributing funds for the new ballroom, Mr. Trump , inevitably dubbed the 鈥淎rc de Trump,鈥� which he hopes to install by July 4 鈥� the 250th anniversary of the nation鈥檚 founding.
The new arch will also reportedly be funded by private donors. Last week, some 130 people attended the East Wing dinner for ballroom sponsors, which featured representatives from companies such as Lockheed Martin, Meta Platforms, Alphabet, Amazon, and Palantir Technologies, .
With all these projects, Mr. Trump is demonstrating a signature feature of his second term: Just go for it, and see if anyone tries to stop him. In the first term, when he installed a new security fence and 1,200-square-foot tennis pavilion on the White House grounds, the National Capital Planning Commission spent more than a year on the approval process for each. The NCPC is a federal agency that vets construction and renovation of federal buildings.
This time, the NCPC has not been involved 鈥� and didn鈥檛 need to be, , a key figure in Mr. Trump鈥檚 inner circle whom the president installed as head of the NCPC. When President Harry Truman oversaw an extensive White House renovation, he got Congress to pass a law that to deal with the project.
In his previous career as a real estate developer, Mr. Trump was proud of his 鈥渃an do鈥� approach. A chapter in his book 鈥淭he Art of the Deal鈥� describes how he took over New York City鈥檚 failed six-year effort to renovate the Wollman Skating Rink in Central Park, completing it in 3陆 months and under budget, and winning plaudits from Mayor Ed Koch.
Today, the stakes are much higher, as Mr. Trump embarks on the biggest construction project of his two terms. The White House isn鈥檛 just a building, it鈥檚 a symbol of the United States 鈥� and known as 鈥渢he people鈥檚 house.鈥�
Public pushback has been fierce, as was the White House response Tuesday afternoon.
鈥淚n the latest instance of manufactured outrage, unhinged leftists and their Fake News allies are clutching their pearls over President Donald J. Trump鈥檚 visionary addition of a grand, privately funded ballroom to the White House,鈥� the president鈥檚 communications team said that includes photos of White House renovations over the decades.
On Tuesday morning, as pictures of the gaping hole across the side of the East Wing proliferated on the internet, a small crowd of locals and tourists from around the world gathered to check it out.
One man, an employee of a local university, called the ballroom project an expression of 鈥淭rump鈥檚 ego.鈥� Another, visiting from Lebanon after running in the Chicago marathon, asked to have his picture taken in front of the Treasury building, with the nearby construction partly visible. A family visiting from the United Kingdom seemed intrigued by the spectacle, as jackhammers rang out.
Someday, the new White House ballroom that can fit 650 people 鈥� or even 999 people, 鈥� might feel completely normal. But for now, it鈥檚 another defining moment for the Trump era.