Donald Trump said one thing about plans for the East Wing of the White House – and then the 79-year-old US President appeared to back completely different proposals
00:59, 23 Oct 2025
Work continued yesterday on the demolition of the East Wing of the White House(Image: AP)
The White House has today admitted the East Wing will be totally demolished to make way for Donald Trump’s glitzy new ballroom.
The US President, 79, had said designs for the lavish function suite “won’t interfere with the current building” – yet machinery was pictured on Monday tearing down part of the historic building. It appeared to complete Mr Trump’s erratic U-turn as, last week, he told ballroom donors at a dinner in the East Room: “It will be demolished”.
And the latest comment seems, finally, the truth as the White House spoke out today to confirm “the existing structure” must indeed go. Speaking today, Mr Trump said: “In order to do it properly, we had to take down the existing structure. The way it was shown, it looked like we were touching the White House. We don’t touch the White House.
“That’s the bridge, the last bridge, going from the White House to the ballroom. Then, you get into the lobby of the ballroom and then you get into the magnificent, the main room and it’s something that has gotten incredible reviews.”
The work has caused quite the stir globally and, indeed, in Washington DC, where a man rammed a car into the security barricade of the White House estate on Tuesday night. The Security Service said a suspect was arrested at the scene, a stone’s throw from Mr Trump’s residency.
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Donald Trump hit out at the photographs of the construction work(Image: Getty Images)
Some $250million (£187million) to build the ballroom will be privately funded, it is understood. However, it is thought this deal is cheaper than alternatives, in part, because the entire wing is being destroyed.
Earlier this year, Mr Trump told reporters: “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.”
But then last week, the world leader said: “It will be demolished. Everything out there is coming down and it will be replaced by the most beautiful ballroom.” The latest address was delivered to donors, including Silicon Valley titans, Apple and Google, defense behemoth Lockheed Martin, and telecom provider, T-Mobile, who gathered for a dinner in the East Room.
They wait in anticipation for the work to be finished, which it is thought could be as soon as the weekend. Former East Wing staffers, though, have expressed concern at the work, with some even writing to the National Capital Planning Commission to try and get the project stopped.
In response to this last week, the White House issued a press release, in which they described the criticism as “manufactured outrage”. The release also added historical photographs showing previous demolitions and construction projects at the White House dating back to 1902.
