New Photos Show ‘Substantial Portion’ of East Wing ‘Demolished’ to Build Trump’s Ballroom
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
On Monday, media outlets reported that the “façade” of the East Wing of the White House was being demolished by construction crews working on a new ballroom. New photos published Tuesday show that the demolition work is far more extensive.
The ballroom has been a pet project for President Donald Trump, who boasted last month that it would be “absolutely magnificent construction” and “one of the best anywhere in the world.”
The plans, however, have evolved over time, with the president expanding the original capacity by nearly 40%. More controversially, despite Trump’s promise that the ballroom construction “won’t interfere with the current building” and would be “near [the East Wing] but not touching it,” viewers were horrified to see construction crews demolishing the East Wing façade on Monday.
Monday evening, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Treasury Department, with offices that have front row seat to the East Wing demolition zone, had sent out an email to staff saying that they “should refrain from taking and sharing photographs of the grounds, to include the East Wing, without prior approval from the Office of Public Affairs.”
A Treasury Department spokesperson told the Journal that the rationale was that photos of the White House complex could “potentially reveal sensitive items, including security features or confidential structural details.”
Nevertheless, independent journalist Chris Geidner obtained new photos of the site Tuesday, publishing them on his Law Dork Substack.
“After The Washington Post reported Monday on the demolition of the ‘East Wing facade,'” wrote Geidner, “a new picture obtained by Law Dork that was taken on Tuesday shows that a substantial portion of the entirety of the East Wing has been demolished.”
This new photo, Geidner wrote on his site, “makes clear that most if not all of the entirety of the East Wing is being demolished,” making it “abundantly clear” that his claim the ballroom construction wouldn’t “interfere” with the East Wing was “a lie.”
A second photo Geidner obtained had a different angle of the White House, he added, and “shows the extent of the demolition has already reached all but the western and northern walls of the East Wing.”
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