White House Demolishes East Wing for Private 90,000-Sq-Ft Ballroom

President Donald Trump confirmed this week that the White House East Wing is being demolished to make way for a privately funded 90,000 square foot ballroom, a project he said will cost roughly $300 million and seat as many as 1,000 guests. Demolition crews began tearing down parts of the East Wing earlier this week and by midweek photos and satellite imagery showed much of the two‑story structure reduced to rubble.

Trump told reporters that architects concluded the existing East Wing would hinder construction and that "in order to do it properly, we had to take down the existing structure." He and White House officials have maintained the project will be paid for by private donors and the president, not by taxpayers. The White House released a list of corporate and private donors that includes major technology, defense and telecom companies, among them Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta, HP, Comcast, T‑Mobile, Lockheed Martin, Palantir and several cryptocurrency firms. Officials have not disclosed the exact amounts contributed by each donor.

The demolition and construction are proceeding even though plans have not completed the customary public review with federal...