In July, Trump unveiled his plans to add a 90,000 square foot ballroom to the White House campus. At the time, Trump vowed that the ballroom wouldn’t affect the existing White House.
“It won’t interfere with the current building. It won’t be. It’ll be near it, but not touching it and pays total respect to the existing building, which I’m the biggest fan of. It’s my favorite. It’s my favorite place,” Trump said during an executive order signing event in July.
But White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a late July press briefing announcing the ballroom that the East Wing would be “modernized.”
“The necessary construction will take place,” she said at the time.
Trump is building a new $200 million ballroom at the White House
On Monday, Trump announced on his social media platform that “ground has been broken” on the ballroom project.
“Completely separate from the White House itself, the East Wing is being fully modernized as part of this process, and will be more beautiful than ever when it is complete!” Trump wrote.
Trump also reminded that the project is being “being privately funded by many generous Patriots, Great American Companies, and, yours truly.”
In an event in the East Room on Monday afternoon honoring Louisiana State Universtity and LSU-Shreveport’s championship baseball teams, Trump said construction began Monday on a “knockout panel” that will link directly into the ballroom.
“But you see the gold drapes. That’s a knockout panel. We knock it in. You go, that comes out, and then you have essentially glass, and exactly in the decor of the White House,” Trump said Monday, pointing to drapes in the East Room.
The press release from the White House announcing the ballroom said that the ballroom’s “theme and architectural heritage will be almost identical” to the White House.
The site of the new ballroom will be where the small, heavily changed, and reconstructed East Wing currently sits, the press release added.
The East Wing was constructed in 1902 and has been renovated before, including a 1942 renovation that added a second story, according to the press release.
The White House and the White House Historical Association did not immediately respond for comment about the demolition.
The news was first reported by The Washington Post.
