{"id":137144,"date":"2025-10-22T00:25:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T00:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/137144\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T00:25:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T00:25:10","slug":"white-houses-east-wing-partially-demolished-as-work-begins-on-trumps-250m-ballroom-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/137144\/","title":{"rendered":"White House\u2019s East Wing partially demolished as work begins on Trump\u2019s $250m ballroom \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Construction crews have started demolishing part of the East Wing of the White House<\/a> to make way for Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s planned ballroom, prompting widespread criticism on social media and beyond.<\/p>\n

One former lawmaker even called the renovation an \u201c\u200b\u200butter desecration\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Washington Post, which obtained and published photos of the demolition activity and cited two eyewitnesses, reported on Monday that demolition was under way, and shared an image showing construction in progress and parts of the exterior ripped down.<\/p>\n

Other images, including ones seen in the New York Post, also show demolition of parts of the East Wing.<\/p>\n

The White House did not respond to a request for comment from the Guardian.<\/p>\n

On his Truth Social platform on Monday, Mr Trump said \u201cground has been broken on the White House\u201d to build the new ballroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am honored to be the first President to finally get this much-needed project underway \u2014 with zero cost to the American Taxpayer! The White House Ballroom is being privately funded by many generous Patriots, Great American Companies, and, yours truly,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Earlier, at a ceremony in Washington, DC celebrating the NCAA champion Louisiana State University baseball team on Monday, Mr Trump said his administration was planning to build \u201cthe most beautiful ballroom in the country\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know I\u2019d be standing here right now because, right on the other side, you have a lot of construction going on, which you might hear periodically,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Plans to build an enormous $250 million (\u20ac215 million) ballroom addition to the White House \u2013 one of the largest projects at the White House in more than a century \u2013 emerged in July. At the time, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the renovated space would span 8,300sq m and seat up to 650 people. Officials said it would be paid for by Mr Trump and unnamed donors.<\/p>\n

Of the renovation, Mr Trump said in July: \u201cIn the White House, for 150 years, they\u2019ve wanted to have a ballroom.\u201d He addded: \u201cThere\u2019s never been a president that was good at ballrooms.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m good at building things and we\u2019re going to build quickly and on time. It\u2019ll be beautiful, top, top of the line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reports broke in August that work would begin in September. It is expected to be completed before the end of Mr Trump\u2019s second term, in January 2029.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump previously claimed that the new structure would not \u201cinterfere with the current building\u201d, according to the Washington Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be near it but not touching it \u2013 and pays total respect to the existing building, which I\u2019m the biggest fan of,\u201d Mr Trump said during an executive order signing in July, according to the Post. \u201cIt\u2019s my favorite. It\u2019s my favorite place. I love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Mr Trump hosted a dinner at the White House for donors funding the ballroom. During the event, he reportedly opened the curtains of the East Room to show where construction on the ballroom had started. He told the guests that the new venue would feature bulletproof glass, accommodate 1,000 people and be capable of hosting a presidential inauguration.<\/p>\n

Guests at the dinner reportedly included representatives from Amazon, Apple, Meta, Google, Microsoft, Palantir and Lockheed Martin.<\/p>\n

Concerns and criticisms over Trump\u2019s renovation plans have come from lawmakers and from social media.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Keith Duggan: Staying loyal to Donald Trump tests Republican speaker\u2019s survival skillsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Democratic congressman Mark Takano of California proposed a Bill that would prohibit the use of federal funds for any construction or renovation at the White House during a government shutdown, unless the work is directly related to health or safety. Monday marked day 20 of the government shutdown.<\/p>\n

Joe Walsh, a former Republican member of Congress, called the renovation an \u201c\u200b\u200butter desecration\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I ran for President in 2028, I\u2019d run on taking a bulldozer to Trump\u2019s ballroom, an utter desecration of the peoples\u2019 house,\u201d Walsh said in a post on X on Monday, reacting to a picture showing part of the White House being demolished.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, I\u2019d invite the American people one weekend to bring their own sledgehammers & crowbars to the White House to help tear that abomination down.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWealth & income inequality is at record highs in America, but glad we\u2019re spending $250m on a vanity project,\u201d said human rights lawyer Qasim Rashid. – Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Construction crews have started demolishing part of the East Wing of the White House to make way for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,356,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,384,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-137144","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-latest-news","15":"tag-latestnews","16":"tag-main-news","17":"tag-mainnews","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-top-stories","20":"tag-topstories","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-world","23":"tag-world-news","24":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}