Trump's decision to demolish the White House East Wing to make way for a private ballroom has provoked accusations of disrespect and historical erasure.

US President Donald Trump announced plans this year for a privately funded, 90,000 sq ft White House State Ballroom, and on 31 August 2025, the White House published an official statement saying construction would begin in September.

Images and Associated Press reporting in October 2025 show heavy machinery ripping into the East Wing façade, a section long associated with the office and staff of the first lady, despite earlier presidential assurances that the main building would remain untouched.

The White House's own release described the new State Ballroom as a 'much-needed' addition and listed McCrery Architects, Clark Construction, and AECOM as the project team. It said the East Wing site would be 'modernised' while stressing the new structure would be 'substantially separated from the main building'.

Yet photographs published by the AP and on other outlets on 20–22 October 2025 show excavators tearing through the East Wing exterior and missing window frames, evidence that contradicts the President's July remarks that the project 'won't interfere with the current building' and would be 'near it but not touching it'.

The AP report, widely circulated with staff photography, forms a direct visual record of the work underway.

The White House press office and the President have sought to frame the work as a practical modernisation of facilities: the White House statement and subsequent official briefings emphasised private funding and the claim that taxpayers would not bear the cost.

Trump himself posted on social media that 'ground has been broken on the White House grounds to build the new, big, beautiful White House Ballroom', insisting it would be 'completely separate from the White House itself'.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt has defended the project in official briefings accessible on the White House video archive, telling reporters that necessary construction will proceed and urging the public to 'trust the process'.

Yet, as reporting from outlets that documented the visible demolition makes clear, the distinction between a freestanding addition and work that alters a historic wing is now a central point of dispute.