The wrecking of part of the White House’s East Wing to make way for President Trump’s ballroom is striking a nerve with his critics who see it as an overhaul of a historic building for a gaudy personal project.
Images of an excavator tearing into parts of the White House went viral on Monday, eliciting the latest outrage over Trump’s efforts to rapidly remake the nation’s capital in his preferred image.
That has included paving over the Rose Garden grass, installing flag poles on the White House lawn, covering the Oval Office in gold accents, taking control of the Kennedy Center and deploying the National Guard around Washington, D.C.
Trump is also leaving a lasting mark on the federal government, having spearheaded a dramatic reduction in the size of the workforce, a reconfiguration of some departments and the elimination of entire agencies while largely sidelining Congress to implement his agenda.
But the ballroom project has struck a particular nerve.
Historians said the construction both struck at the literal edifice of the building and the symbolism the “People’s House” represents.
Ed Lengel, who served as the chief historian for the White House Historical Association from 2016 to 2018, told The Hill that even Trump’s previous changes, such as the installation of flag poles on the North Lawn and South Lawn, the redecoration of the Oval Office and the changes to the Rose Garden, were “nothing unusual” and that presidents through history have “put their own personal stamp on the White House.”
“The thing that is unprecedented about this is the construction of the ballroom,” Lengel said. “There’s never been anything like that before. And I think I can say that with total confidence. There’s been nothing on that scale, even close to that scale, has ever been done before.
The White House has pushed back hard on that criticism and dismissed what it called “manufactured outrage” over the construction.
“You probably hear the beautiful sound of construction in the back,” Trump told GOP senators he hosted in the Rose Garden on Tuesday. “You hear that sound? That’s music to my ears. I think when I hear that sound it reminds me of money. In this case it reminds me of lack of money, because I’m paying for it.”
Trump has sought for years to construct a ballroom at the White House, and administration officials have asserted the project is part of a long tradition of presidents modernizing and changing the building to suit their needs.
The White House pointed to the 1902 construction of the West Wing, the 1933 expansion of the West Wing and construction of the East Wing, the 1948 rehab of the building’s interior, the 1973 addition of a bowling alley in the basement and the 2009 work that turned a tennis court into a basketball court.
“In the latest instance of manufactured outrage, unhinged leftists and their Fake News allies are clutching their pearls over President Donald J. Trump’s visionary addition of a grand, privately funded ballroom to the White House — a bold, necessary addition that echoes the storied history of improvements and renovations from commanders-in-chief to keep the executive residence as a beacon of American excellence,” the White House said in a statement.
Still, in a sign the administration was sensitive to the viral images of a gutted East Wing, the Treasury Department directed staff not to share photos of the project, which was visible from its offices. A spokesperson for the department cited security concerns as the reason for the direction.
“To me, the thing that’s shocking is not from the perspective of White House history and the building itself, it’s more changing the nature of the edifice, and what it represents goes counter to what the founders intended this to be. … They wanted it to be the people’s house,” Lengel added.
The Society of Architectural Historians issued a statement late last week expressing “great concern” over the ballroom project, saying the proposal should be subject to “a rigorous and deliberate design and review process.”
The Associated Press reported that the National Capital Planning Commission, which is led by White House staff secretary Will Scharf, said last month the ballroom project did not require the panel’s approval for construction to begin.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced at the end of July plans for a $200 million ballroom that would be funded by outside donors. At the time, the White House said the ballroom would be 90,000 square feet and hold a seated capacity of 650 people for events like state dinners.
In making the announcement, officials said the ballroom would be “substantially separated from the main building of the White House.”
Construction began on Monday, with an excavator tearing into the East Wing of the White House, sending parts of the roof, the building’s exterior and portions of its interior crumbling to the ground. Offices located in that part of the building were relocated, officials said.
White House officials have repeatedly noted the cost of the ballroom will be footed by donors, rather than taxpayers. Trump last week hosted a dinner at the White House for donors to the project, which included representatives from Microsoft, Google, Palantir and other companies, as well as wealthy figures such as Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman and Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.
The donor aspect has fueled further criticism from Democrats, who see it as an opening for wealthy individuals to gain access to the White House by cutting a check.
“The entire purpose of replacing the White House with this gaudy ballroom is to serve as a reward for Trump’s campaign donors and crypto scam bribers,” said Jesse Lee, who served in the Obama and Biden administrations.
The ballroom comes in the broader context of Trump’s second term, which has seen him rapidly bend the government and major institutions to his will.
He has sought to press law firms and universities to align with his agenda. He has gutted and effectively shuttered government agencies. And he has unilaterally imposed tariffs that have upended the global economy.
But he has also been interested in remaking the aesthetics of the capital in his image, hearkening to his time as a real estate developer. He has spoken about renovating the Kennedy Center and about repaving the District’s streets. He has covered the walls of the Oval Office with gold accents and brought in a framed copy of the Declaration of Independence.
One of the early projects was replacing the Rose Garden grass with pavers and turning the space into a patio that resembles Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property in Florida.
The president on Tuesday hosted Republican senators for lunch in the Rose Garden, where he explained the various changes he had overseen in the last nine months.
“I hope you’re going to be here a lot,” Trump told senators on Tuesday. “We’re going to use it for meetings, we’re going to use it for press conferences. … Everything that you see was redone. All of this was redone, and the whole White House is being redone.”
Source: The Hill
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