“Trump Begins Work on $250M Golden Ballroom as Parts of the White House Are Torn Down”

Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump con­firmed the entire East Wing would be replaced for the grand ball­room, despite ini­tial plans to keep part of it intact

WASHINGTON, DC: Demo­li­tion began Mon­day, Octo­ber 20, on the East Wing of the White House to make way for Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s lav­ish new $250 mil­lion ball­room, a gold-accent­ed struc­ture inspired by his Mar-a-Lago resort.

Pho­tos showed heavy con­struc­tion equip­ment tear­ing into the cen­tu­ry-old East Wing, send­ing crash­ing sounds echo­ing through the White House grounds as staff and reporters looked on.

While ini­tial plans sug­gest­ed the East Wing would remain par­tial­ly intact, the pres­i­dent con­firmed last week that the entire struc­ture would be replaced to accom­mo­date the grand ball­room. 

East Wing demolition begins for Trump’s $250M ballroom

Images cap­tured revealed a back­hoe rip­ping through the East Wing walls, with dust and debris fill­ing the air. The once-pris­tine struc­ture, built in 1902 and expand­ed in 1942 to house offices for first lady Eleanor Roo­sevelt, is now being lev­eled.

Com­plete­ly sep­a­rate from the White House itself, the East Wing is being ful­ly mod­ern­ized as part of this process, and will be more beau­ti­ful than ever when it is com­plete!” Trump wrote on Truth Social after footage of the demo­li­tion sur­faced

At a fundrais­ing din­ner last week, Trump told donors, “It will be demol­ished. Every­thing out there is com­ing down and it will be replaced by the most beau­ti­ful ball­room.

The pres­i­dent unveiled the project’s progress dur­ing the din­ner, open­ing gold­en cur­tains to reveal the demo­li­tion site and thank­ing con­trib­u­tors for financ­ing the con­struc­tion

Lavish design inspired by Mar-a-Lago

Announced in July, the 25,000-square-foot ball­room will host state din­ners and offi­cial events. Ren­der­ings show crys­tal chan­de­liers, gild­ed columns, and gold inlays rem­i­nis­cent of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago and his for­mer DC hotel

The ball­room will be one of the best any­where in the world,” Trump told guests. “There won’t be any­thing like it.” The project will report­ed­ly be pri­vate­ly fund­ed, with Trump con­tribut­ing per­son­al­ly. Major donors include Apple, Google, Lock­heed Mar­tin, and T‑Mobile.

The East Wing has long housed the first lady’s offices and served as the pub­lic entrance to the White House. Ini­tial­ly con­struct­ed under Pres­i­dent Theodore Roo­sevelt, it under­went major ren­o­va­tions in 1942 to include a sec­ond sto­ry and a bomb shel­ter beneath.

Inside Trump’s wider White House makeover

The ball­room project is part of Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s sweep­ing redesign of the White House dur­ing his sec­ond term. This year alone, he has installed giant flag­poles on both lawns, replaced the Rose Gar­den grass with white stone, gild­ed the Oval Office and Cab­i­net Room with gold leaf, and added a “Pres­i­den­tial Walk of Fame” along the West Wing Colon­nade. 

Dur­ing a recent event with col­lege base­ball teams, Trump joked about the ballroom’s prox­im­i­ty to the East Room, say­ing, “That’s a knock-out pan­el and that goes right into the ball­room. So you’ll have drinks, cock­tails, every­thing on this floor and they’ll say, ‘Wel­come to din­ner,’ walk into the ball­room.”

The ball­room is expect­ed to accom­mo­date 1,000 guests and fea­ture bul­let­proof glass