Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Fulfilling his election promise to Make America Great Again (MAGA), US President Donald Trump is rebuilding the East Wing of the White House to create a ballroom almost twice the size of the White House itself!
And the ballroom’s construction, not legally permitted so far, will be privately-funded!!
This will be the biggest of all modifications in the White House’s history of over 200 years.
The existing structure was razed after he announced his plan to demolish the East Wing and build a new ballroom nearly twice the size of the White House at an updated cost of USD 300 million, the media reported on Friday.
Trump also said that nearly USD 350 million had been raised for the project, but he remained vague about his personal contribution.
“I won’t be able to tell you until I finish,” he told reporters, “but I’ll donate whatever is needed.”
He allowed the East Wing demolition to begin without warning on Monday and despite having no approval from the relevant government agencies with jurisdiction over construction on federal buildings.
The East Wing of the White House, the formal entryway where First Ladies — since the time of Eleanor Roosevelt — created histories, planned state dinners and promoted causes, is now itself a history. A satellite image on Thursday showed that the entire East Wing was demolished, with debris piling on the ground where the iconic structure once stood.
The new image shows the existing entire two-storey structure of drawing rooms and offices, including workspace for First Ladies and their staffs, has been turned into rubble.
An excavator was seen collecting the rubble in a spot that previously housed a portico. The colonnade that connected the Executive Residence to the East Wing has also been nearly removed, with only a small portion that touches the Residence remaining.
Trump said that keeping the East Wing as it is would have “hurt a very, very expensive, beautiful building,” referring to the ballroom that, he said, US presidents have wanted for years. He and “some friends of mine” will pay for the ballroom at no cost to taxpayers.
The East Wing was where visitors entered for public tours and to attend events, such as White House state dinners, holidays and other receptions, and events featuring the US President. Tours were halted in late summer this year in preparation for the ballroom construction.
The wing also sat atop an emergency bunker and wrapped around the First Lady’s Garden, named after Jacqueline Kennedy. The garden has also been ripped, while the bunker will be upgraded under the renovation plans, the reports said.
The proposed ballroom was announced as a USD 200 million project in July, a cost Trump publicly updated to USD 250 million last week. On Thursday, he put the price tag “in the neighbourhood” of USD 300 million.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt attributed the demolition and higher building costs to changes that happen with any construction.
“The plans changed when the President heard counsel from the architects and the construction companies who said that for this East Wing to be modern and beautiful for many, many years to come, for it to be a truly strong and stable structure, this phase one that we’re now in was necessary, and the president wants to do right by the ‘People’s House,” she said at her press briefing on Thursday.
The White House has been pushing back against criticism of the ballroom plan and elimination of the East Wing by noting the history of add-ons to the Executive Mansion during its more than 200-years of its existence. Trump aides argue that his plan follows that history, even though the proposed ballroom would be the biggest of all the modifications to the White House.
Preservationists had urged the Trump administration to halt the demolition, for which approval was not required, Leavitt said on Thursday, until plans for the 90,000-square-foot (8,361-square-meter) ballroom could go through the required public review process.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation said the review process, which includes public comment, would “provide a crucial opportunity for transparency and broad engagement – values that have guided preservation of the White House under every administration going back to the public competition in 1792 that produced the building’s original design.”
In a letter, the Trust also expressed concern to the National Capital Planning Commission, the National Park Service and the Commission of Fine Arts that the size of the proposed ballroom will overwhelm the Executive Mansion, which stands at 55,000 square feet (5,109 square meters), “and may permanently disrupt the carefully balanced classical design of the White House.”
Both commissions have jurisdiction over changes to the White House. The Park Service manages the White House grounds and has a role in the process. Several trees on the South Lawn have been cut down as part of the construction. Both agencies are currently closed because of the government shutdown. Trump installed top aide Will Scharf as chairman of the planning commission.
The National Park Service said in August, after the White House announced the ballroom project, that it had provided historic preservation guidance and support as part of a broader consultation process. It said final decisions are made by the Executive Office of the President.