Tearing Down the White House
Deconstructing the deconstruction
You’ve seen the pictures and videos — construction crews demolishing the East Wing of the White House. Typically, when Donald Trump isn’t in office, the East Wing is used by the First Lady and her staff. Since Melania Trump isn’t living or working there, it’s fallen into disuse — so now it’s being torn down.
In its place will be a 250-million-dollar ballroom (UPDATE: Now the cost has ballooned to 300 million), Trump’s personal pet project.
Back in June 2025, Trump told reporters during a White House photo-op that the ballroom “will be in keeping with the rest of the White House” and “won’t touch the existing structure.”
Well — now we know that wasn’t true. Far from “not even touching” the main structure, demolition crews suddenly moved in. At first, it was supposed to be just the façade of the East Wing that would be removed. Now it’s the entire East Wing.
The renderings show a massive new structure lurking beside the main mansion, as if it’s draining the life out of it. Inside, it looks more like Putin’s palace than the People’s House — marble columns, gold-leaf ceilings, and a two-story chandelier.
Trump says he’s paying for it himself. He also said it would “cost the taxpayers nothing.” We’ll see. Given what he said back in June that turned out not to be true, it’s fair to doubt him.
The images of the demolition have disturbed a lot of people. I’ll get into why later.
But first, some history. The White House has been torn down and rebuilt before — literally. After the British burned it in 1814, James and Dolley Madison oversaw its reconstruction. President Truman gutted and rebuilt it in the late 1940s after engineers warned the interior was close to collapse. Later presidents made smaller changes — FDR added an indoor pool, Nixon a bowling alley, JFK a new Rose Garden. Trump already redesigned that garden over the summer, replacing most of Jackie Kennedy’s trees and flowers with limestone walkways and shrubs.
So yes, there’s precedent for renovation. A case could be made for an addition to the White House — but not like this, and not without oversight. If a “state ballroom” was needed, it could have been built somewhere else in D.C.
What’s unsettling people isn’t the construction itself. It’s that no one knows how or why this was approved. Congress didn’t weigh in. The public didn’t either.
It’s another example of Trump acting like a king — as if he plans never to leave the White House. He seems intent on turning it into another Mar-a-Lago, and his administration — along with many Republicans — is acting like they’ll never have to answer to voters again.
People see the destruction of the East Wing as a metaphor for what he’s doing to the country, its institutions, and the rule of law.
If it’s a metaphor, it’s a chilling one.