The White House on October 20 started tearing down part of the East Wing, the traditional base of operations for the first lady, to build Donald Trump’s $250 million ballroom despite lacking approval for construction from the federal agency that oversees such projects.
Dramatic photos of the demolition work showed construction equipment tearing into the East Wing façade and windows and other building parts in tatters on the ground. Some reporters watched from a park near the Treasury Department, which is next to the East Wing.
Trump announced the start of construction in a social media post and referenced the work while hosting 2025 college baseball champs Louisiana State University and LSU-Shreveport in the East Room. He noted the work was happening “right behind us.”
“We have a lot of construction going on, which you might hear periodically,” he said, adding, “It just started today.”
The White House has moved ahead with the massive construction project despite not yet having sign-off from the National Capital Planning Commission, which approves construction work and major renovations to government buildings in the Washington area.
Its chairman, Will Scharf, who is also the White House staff secretary and one of Trump’s top aides, said at the commission’s September meeting that agency does not have jurisdiction over demolition or site preparation work for buildings on federal property.
“What we deal with is essentially construction, vertical build,” Scharf said last month.
It was unclear whether the White House had submitted the ballroom plans for the agency’s review and approval. The White House did not respond to a request for comment and the commission’s offices are closed because of the government shutdown.
Legal experts said the demolition violates federal preservation law because no agency approval or budget authorization exists to alter the White House during a government shutdown.
The National Park Service, which manages the property, and the National Capital Planning Commission, which reviews construction on federal grounds, are both shuttered and cannot issue permits or oversight.
Without those clearances, they said, the work proceeds without lawful authority — making the demolition itself illegal under federal statute.
Trump had said in July when the project was announced that the ballroom would not interfere with the mansion itself.
“It’ll be near it but not touching it and pays total respect to the existing building, which I’m the biggest fan of,” he said of the White House.
The East Wing houses several offices, including those of the first lady. It was built in 1902 and and has been renovated over the years, with a second story added in 1942, according to the White House.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said those East Wing offices will be temporarily relocated during construction and that wing of the building will be modernized and renovated.
“Nothing will be torn down,” Leavitt had assured the public when she announced the project in July.
Trump insists that presidents have desired such a ballroom for 150 years and that he’s adding the massive 90,000-square-foot, glass-walled space because the East Room, which is the largest room in the White House with an approximately 200-person capacity, is too small.
He also has said he does not like the idea of hosting kings, queens, presidents and prime ministers in pavilions on the South Lawn.
Trump claimed in the social media announcement that the project would be completed “with zero cost to the American Taxpayer! The White House Ballroom is being privately funded by many generous Patriots, Great American Companies, and, yours truly.”
The ballroom will be the biggest structural change to the Executive Mansion since the addition in 1948 of the Truman Balcony overlooking the South Lawn, even dwarfing the residence itself.
At a dinner he hosted recently for some of the wealthy business executives who are donating money toward the $250 million construction cost, Trump said the project had grown in size and now will accommodate 999 people. The capacity was 650 seated people at the July announcement.
The White House has said it will disclose information on who has contributed money to build the ballroom, but has yet to do so.
The clearing of trees on the south grounds and other site preparation work started in September. Plans call for the ballroom to be ready before Trump’s term ends in January 2029.
Since taking office, Trump has moved beyond cosmetic changes that come with new administrations by agressively altering the mansion’s visuals. Media images from the Oval Office have documented the addition of conspicuously garrish gold accents covering the walls — a departure from the restrained style of previous presidencies that critics say echoes the ostentation of Mar-a-Lago.
The White House grounds have also been physically transformed. Contractors poured a broad concrete platform over part of the Rose Garden to create what aides described as a “party deck,” eliminating landscaped greenery long used for official ceremonies and small-scale public events.
Those alterations have drawn sharp criticism from preservationists and former administration officials who say the modifications amount to a deliberate rebranding of the presidency’s image as that of royalty.
Opponents argue the gilding motifs and expansions substitute historic restraint for a spectacle reserved for Kings and Emperors, and erode norms that have long signaled the office’s institutional image.
The moves to transform the White House into a palace also raises serious questions about Trump’s judgment, temperamental fitness, and whether he is reshaping the executive mansion into a personal showcase unsuitable for the nation’s seat of government.
