Donald Trump - Big Beautiful Ballroom
The White House began demolishing part of its East Wing on 20 October 2025 to build President Donald Trump’s new ballroom, despite lacking approval from the federal agency that normally oversees such projects. Photos showed a backhoe tearing into the façade as reporters watched from a nearby park near the Treasury Department.
President Donald Trump said 21 October 2025 that his new ballroom will cost an estimated $300 million and the lofty plans require the White House’s historic East Wing to be demolished, contrary to assurances he gave weeks earlier. Trump admitted the price of the gold-plated 90,000 square-foot ballroom was likely be $100 million more than the initial price tag of $200 million and $250 million. This project, which involves demolishing the entire East Wing, is said to be funded by private donors. As planned at that time, the 155,000 square foot edivice [three times teh size of the original White House] would provide seating variously estimted at 999 to 1,000 people. Costs had grown as the project grew, intially a 55,000 square foot struture for 650 guests, with a stope along the way for a 90,000-square-foot ballroom.
The White House moved ahead with the massive construction project despite seeming toklack a firmly agreed design, and 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 2025 meeting that agency did not have jurisdiction over demolition or site preparation work for buildings on federal property.
Donald Trump said the "big, beautiful" ballroom will come at no cost to the US taxpayer. The ballroom will be the biggest addition to the US presidential residence since initial construction over two centuries ago.
The White House is one of the most beautiful and historic buildings in the world, yet the White House is currently unable to host major functions honoring world leaders and other countries without having to install a large and unsightly tent approximately 100 yards away from the main building entrance. The White House State Ballroom will be a "much-needed and exquisite addition", initiallly projected as approximately 90,000 total square feet of ornately designed and carefully crafted space, with a seated capacity of 650 people — a significant increase from the 200-person seated capacity in the East Room of the White House.
Trump held several meetings with members of the White House Staff, the National Park Service, the White House Military Office, and the United States Secret Service to discuss design features and planning. President Trump, and "other patriot donors" committed to donating the funds necessary to build this approximately $200 million dollar structure. The United States Secret Service will provide the necessary security enhancements and modifications.
President Donald Trump hosted a dinner for donors related to the White House ballroom plans on 16 October 2025 said "The White House, for 150 years plus, they've wanted to have a ballroom, and it never happened because they've never had a real estate person. ... So for years they've wanted to have it. And when they have the head of China, the head of any country, many, many of the countries came, they'd always put the tent out on the lawn. And if it was not raining, you'd get away with it a little bit, but it's still a tent."
President Trump chose McCrery Architects as lead architect, which is well-known for their classical architectural design and based in our nation’s capital. CEO Jim McCrery said: “Presidents in the modern era have faced challenges hosting major events at the White House because it has been untouched since President Harry Truman. I am honored that President Trump has entrusted me to help bring this beautiful and necessary renovation to The People’s House, while preserving the elegance of its classical design and historical importance.”
The construction team will be headed by Clark Construction, and the engineering team will be led by AECOM. The project began in September 2025, and it is expected to be completed "long before the end of President Trump’s term".
The $200 million project, funded privately, was expected to complete before 2029, though it had drawn criticism for its scale, design, and lack of public oversight. CBS News reported that pledges were coming from corporations and wealthy donors, including Google, Booz Allen Hamilton, R.J. Reynolds, Palantir, and NextEra Energy. Lockheed Martin is said to have contributed $10 million to the project. They each may be rewarded by having their names etched into the White House.
Director Roland Emmerich's "Independence Day" features perhaps the most iconic White House destruction, where an alien blast it to dust. The spectacle became so memorable it appears on the DVD cover. Some criticized the alien destruction for "coming too soon after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombings," and producers "added a helicopter escaping the destruction in the scene, as if to reassure viewers that the people inside somehow escaped."
The year 2013 saw the first blockbusters since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks to violently assault Washington landmarks. Jay Newton-Small concluded the films represented "a healing milestone on the collective American psyche post 9/11," though "there's always been a tenuous balance between fictional violence against politicians and U.S. landmarks and actual real-world violence."
"Olympus Has Fallen" and "White House Down" both released in 2013, marking "the first blockbusters since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks to violently attack Washington landmarks," with "Olympus" notably featuring terrorists flying a plane into the White House. Other films include: "X2: X-Men United" (Nightcrawler infiltrates the White House), "2012" (USS John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier crashes into it via tidal wave), "Superman II" (General Zod takes control), "Mars Attacks!" (alien lasers), and "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" (terrorists impersonate the president).
Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley described watching the demolition as "almost like slashing a Rembrandt painting." Senator Elizabeth Warren posted: "Donald Trump can't hear you over the sound of bulldozers demolishing a wing of the White House to build a new grand ballroom." The Maryland demolition contractor faced such intense backlash on social media that Yelp disabled reviews, with comments calling them "traitors to the United States" for "destruction of the east wing of the White House."
Matt Ford noted that "spectacle as a shortcut to substance" defines this approach—"a literal stage for a leader whose entire political identity is performance. Governance as reality show—the set rebuilt between seasons while the foundations crumble." He argued that "for generations, the White House has stood as the symbol of democratic continuity — each president a temporary tenant in a house built to outlast them all," and that "the guardrails don't disappear all at once. They erode through precedent — one ballroom at a time."
Ford described the demolition as "the perfect monument to his presidency. Nothing else could capture his arrogant sense of personal ownership over public goods and services; his blithe disregard for legal and procedural constraints...his self-absorbed priorities.... It is hard to imagine a more fitting image of President Donald Trump’s second term than the photographs of the White House’s East Wing that became public this week... The raw spectacle of Trump tearing a hole in the White House to hang out with his rich friends is already a potent symbol of his presidency—almost ham-fisted in a way, as if it were drawn by a third-rate political cartoonist for a fourth-rate newspaper. At every level, the entire project may be the perfect summation of what his administration has been like for the country."
The visual power of demolition — whether from 1814, Hollywood, or October 2025 — consistently serves as metaphor. The question is whether destruction leads to resilience and renewal, or represents something more permanent about the erosion of institutions themselves.
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