Even the first lady is wiping her hands off Donald Trump’s demolition of the White House East Wing.
Behind closed doors, Melania Trump, 55, has fretted over the president’s destruction of the East Wing to make way for a flashy gold ballroom worth $300 million, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.
Rather than coaxing Trump, 79, to halt the project, Melania absolved herself of any future blame by telling associates it was not her project, the Journal reported.
Trump’s pet project has so far resulted in the destruction of the historic East Wing of the White House—including the Office of the First Lady, the East Colonnade, and the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden. The damage is even visible from space.
Publicly, the first lady has remained silent on the demolition of the area where she and her staff once worked. But not everyone in her circle has.
Stephanie Grisham, who served as Melania’s chief of staff during her husband’s first term, slammed the White House teardown on CNN’s OutFront.
Grisham, also a former White House press secretary turned fierce Trump critic, told Erin Burnett the destruction “breaks her heart.”
“It’s something that could never be put back,” said Grisham. “I wish they would have gone about it in a better way... I can’t help wonder what [Melania] thinks of how all of this is taking place.”
Grisham also emphasized the speed the project—which bypassed the standard approval process for White House renovations—was carried out.
“I certainly didn’t expect it to be demolished like a condemned house over three days or so,” Grisham said.