Demolition begins at White House to make way for Trump's new ballroom

Construction began on President Donald Trump’s new $250 million White House ballroom with workers demolishing part of the East Wing ahead of building a 90,000-square-foot addition, one of the biggest changes to the presidential residence in decades.

Images show a backhoe tearing into the side of the East Wing facing the Treasury building, despite Trump’s pledge in July that the ballroom wouldn’t impact the existing White House structure.

“It won’t interfere with the current building… 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. “It’s my favorite place. I love it.”

Trump announced during an event in the East Room Oct. 20 that the construction work began earlier in the day. He said one of the East Room walls would be removed, calling it a “knock out panel, and that goes right into the ballroom.”

“Right on the other side you have a lot of construction going on,” Trump said, adding: “It just started today.”

Trump later posted on social media that the East Wing is “being fully modernized as part of this process, and will be more beautiful than ever when it is complete!”

The East Wing dates to 1902 and “has been renovated and changed many times, with a second story added in 1942,” according to a White House press release from July announcing the new ballroom. It includes a formal entrance, offices on the first and second floor and an underground bomb shelter, according to the White House Historical Association. It traditionally has been the location of the first lady’s office.

A real-estate-developer-turned-president, Trump has quickly moved in his second term to put his stamp not just on policy, but on the physical landscape. He tore up to the White House Rose Garden to install a patio, overhauled the Oval Office with gold trimmings, put 88-foot-tall flagpoles on the north and south lawn of the White House and is working on a bathroom in the Lincoln Bedroom.

For years, Trump has been pushing for a ballroom in the White House that would accommodate large gatherings, such as state dinners. He has lamented the fact that many of the fancy affairs in the past were held in tents. The ballroom is being financed by private donors.

“You’re going to see a ballroom the likes of which I don’t think will, I don’t think it’ll be topped,” Trump said Oct. 20. “It’ll be the finest.”