Video: President Trump’s new ballroom demolished
A crane has been spotted near the White House as the next phase of President Trump’s $200 million, 90,000-square-foot East Wing expansion begins.
Passersby watched as part of the home shared by the US president and his family collapsed, sending plumes of smoke into the sky above the White House.
In the first large-scale construction order ordered by a president in nearly 80 years, crews began work on Monday, October 20, tearing down the facade of the East Wing of the White House.
The construction is part of President Donald Trump’s plan to build a ballroom on the east side of the White House.
President Trump said at an event in the East Room on October 20 that construction work on the ballroom began earlier in the day.
Later that day, the president posted on social media that the East Wing “is being completely modernized as part of this process and will be more beautiful than ever when completed.”
Photos from the scene show a crane near the White House as the next phase of President Trump’s $200 million, 90,000-square-foot East Wing expansion begins.
See photos of the White House bombing
Has the White House ever been renovated?
In 1817, then-President James Monroe moved into the newly completed White House.
More than a century later, in 1952, the Harry S. Truman renovation was completed, according to White House archives. Construction began in 1948, “completely gutting the White House and rebuilding it from the inside out.”
Contributor: Zach Anderson, USA TODAY
Natalie Neisa Alland is a senior reporter at USA TODAY. Contact her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her at X @nataliealund.
