THE NEW YORK TIMES: Critics are outraged over President Trump’s demolition of the East Wing to make way for his $300 million ballroom. Others say it was time for change.
The East Wing, the entrance to the White House for millions of Americans on official tours, the site of offices for every first lady for nearly a half century and the home of calligraphers who prepared thousands of invitations for White House state dinners, disappeared into a pile of rubble on Thursday. It had stood for 123 years.
Built in 1902 during the Theodore Roosevelt administration as an entryway for guests arriving in carriages, and rebuilt in the 1940s during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency, the East Wing met its end under orders from President Trump. He dismissed it this week as “a very small building” that was in the way of his planned 90,000-square-foot, $300 million ballroom.
A New York Times analysis of satellite imagery showed that the demolition included the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden and the East Colonnade, which connected the East Wing to the White House and included the president’s theater.
The East Wing’s destruction prompted outrage from preservationists and Democrats, and mourning from those who once worked there. » | Elisabeth Bumiller | Reporting from Washington | Thursday, October 23, 2025
More criminal activity! Sheer vandalism. The destruction of the American story. Replacing dignified history with naffness and bling. This could raise laughs in a Reality TV show, but in real life it’s heartbreaking. — © Mark Alexander
