(AFP) – Demolition workers have finished tearing down the White House’s entire East Wing to make way for US President Donald Trump’s giant new $300 million ballroom, satellite pictures showed Thursday. The completion of the wrecking work came as the White House released a list of donors to the ballroom including Apple, Google, and Meta. A gray and brown patch of rubble can now be seen in the area that used to be occupied by the iconic building, according to the images shared with AFP by Planet Labs PBC and dated Thursday.
Satellite photos taken just under a month earlier show the wing that housed the offices of the US first lady intact. The complete destruction of part of one of the world’s most famous landmarks is a far more extensive demolition than previously announced by Trump — and happened virtually without warning. When the former property magnate unveiled his plans in July, Trump said that the 90,000-square-foot ballroom “won’t interfere with the current building” and that it would be “near it but not touching it.” But after work started this week, Trump said Wednesday that he had decided after consulting architects that “really knocking it down” was preferable to a partial demolition.
He insists the 1,000-seat ballroom is essential because state dinners and other large events currently have to be held in tents that are temporarily erected on the White House lawn. Trump also said that the new ballroom would cost $300 million, raising the cost from the $250 million quoted by the White House days before, and the $200 million it cited in July. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told an AFP reporter in a briefing that $300 million was now the definitive number but said that “it’s not going to cost the taxpayers a dime.”
– Tech donors – Billionaire Trump says the ballroom will be funded entirely by private donors and by himself. The White House released a list of the donors to AFP on Thursday. They include US tech titans Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, and Palantir, as well as defense giant Lockheed Martin. Individual donors include the family of Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who were made famous as jilted investors in the movie “The Social Network” about the birth of Facebook.
“How much am I donating? I won’t be able to tell you until it’s finished,” Trump told reporters on Thursday. “I’ll donate whatever’s needed, I’ll tell you that.” Many US presidents have carried out upgrades to the White House, but Trump’s ballroom is the biggest in more than a century. While lower profile than the West Wing where the president works, the East Wing had stood in one form or another for 123 years since the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. It received a major makeover in 1942 from President Franklin Roosevelt and was until this week home to the first lady’s offices. It was also the main point of entry for guests for tours and parties.
As criticism mounted about the demolition, the White House Historical Association — an independent group that helps preserve the history of the presidential home — said it had been helping with preservation work. The association had carried out a “comprehensive digital scanning project and photography to create a historic record,” it said in an email to members obtained by AFP. It added that “historic artifacts have been preserved and stored.”
Trump’s wrecking of the East Wing has provoked howls of outrage led by his Democratic opponents, including former first lady and 2016 presidential election rival Hillary Clinton. Another top US historic group, however, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, had urged Trump to pause the demolition. It said in a letter on Tuesday that it was “deeply concerned that the massing and height of the proposed new construction will overwhelm the White House itself” and urged the plans be put before the agency that oversees work on government buildings in Washington. The White House argues that Trump had the authority to go ahead with the demolition without needing the agency’s sign-off.
– Danny KEMP
© 2024 AFP
