What was demolished today was more than just marble and plaster. It reflects how easily history can be erased when power forgets purpose.
Washington DC tourists are unhappy with the construction of the White House
Zach Anderson, USA TODAY’s White House correspondent, told tourists who flocked to the White House to see the construction site.
Although I spent many of my formative years in the White House, I always knew it was not my home. It was definitely my home, but it wasn’t my home. The White House belongs to the American people, which is why we call it the People’s House. I never forgot it.
Well, while I played hide-and-seek in the White House residence and danced behind closed doors at many state dinners, I never thought, “This is my home,” as my friends thought of theirs.
I was 12 years old when I first walked through the doors of the White House, not as a visitor but as a soon-to-be resident. First Lady Barbara Bush showed my mother and me around, telling us where her grandchildren would stay when they came to visit, and what her family’s favorite foods were.
Eight years later, my family would welcome the Bush family back, and I remember telling Jenna and Barbara Bush about my favorite places, my friends who worked in the White House, and, yes, my favorite food.
Like me, I always felt that the Bush family understood that even while our parents were shaping American history, we were all simply passing through. It was the same feeling I had when I met Presidents Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, first ladies Jacqueline Kennedy and First Lady Lady Bird Johnson, and other presidents who at one time called the White House home.
Every president brings change to the White House, including those in my family.
Although this is only a temporary residence, every president and their family has undergone changes. President Theodore Roosevelt built what is now the West Wing, and a few years later, President William Howard Taft built the Oval Office. President Franklin Roosevelt developed the East Wing and installed a swimming pool, and President Nixon later converted it into the White House briefing room.
Mrs. Kennedy famously renovated the Great Hall. My mother was Georgia O’Keeffe, the first first lady to bring contemporary art to the White House. First Lady Michelle Obama added a vegetable garden (my mother only had a planter full of tomatoes on the roof). And first lady Melania Trump renovated the rose garden during her husband’s first term, adding a limestone path and preserving the surrounding flowers.
The White House Historical Society believes there has been a garden at this site since the mid-1800s, when President Ulysses S. Grant was in office, or for more than half the country’s lifetime. Presidents and first ladies add elements of efficiency, comfort, and beauty, all of which are taken care of by a talented staff of electricians, plumbers, painters, arborists, gardeners, butlers, housekeepers, chefs, ushers, historians, and more.
Many of these experts have been working in the White House for substantially longer than the president’s family has lived there.
President Trump’s destruction of the East Tower is what happens when power forgets its purpose.
President Donald Trump has the right to pave over the Rose Garden (and strip the roses bare), turn the East Wing into a ballroom, and apparently raise private funds.
Still, with less than a year left until we celebrate our nation’s 250th anniversary, it is disturbing that such major renovations to the 225-year-old People’s Hall are being undertaken without consideration for historic preservation and seemingly without the involvement of historians, and I hope to be proven wrong here.
When Mrs. Kennedy restored and renovated the White House and Rose Garden, she worked with historians, landscape architects, and preservation experts to make the restoration, which led to the creation of the White House Historical Society, to ensure that it reflected Mrs. Kennedy’s influence but remained consistent with the original design.
In the decades that followed, the Garden became the setting for history itself, with presidents announcing peace agreements, welcoming visiting heads of state, and signing historic landmark legislation, including the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Given the widespread public condemnation of the Rose Garden’s persistence and its apparent reproduction as the “White House Rose Garden Club,” and the outrage over the complete demolition of the East Wing, I’m clearly not alone in my concerns.
Renovations are not inherently unpleasant because of who orders them or who pays for them. Every generation has an obligation to care for and update the White House as its needs evolve, from staffing levels within the administration to technology to more fully represent America to national security and other obvious reasons. But how we do it, and who we include and exclude from the process, says a lot about history and our respect for the House of Peoples.
Yes, the president has authority over the White House grounds, but institutions such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation have outlined both review priorities and required procedures. But authority is not the same as control. Stewardship requires transparency, consultation, and accounting for history.
A disregard for history is a hallmark of President Trump’s second administration. He reportedly directed the Smithsonian Institution and the National Park Service to censor exhibits and remove references to slavery and the treatment of Native Americans. References to women’s rights and LGBTQ+ history have been removed from federal government websites. In a particularly embarrassing episode, President Trump’s Department of the Army (officially known as the Department of Defense) even removed all mention of the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, from its site. This is because an automated effort to remove the word “gay” caught it in the process.
This is what happens when we bring a wrecking ball into our heritage. Ignoring our democratic institutions and the rule of law, and withholding funds already authorized by Congress, stems from the same disregard for our founding ideals and the norms and laws that over time have helped us move closer to the more perfect union that is the ironclad law of our Constitution.
Our greatness does not come from our disregard for history. That happens because we acknowledge our history, learn from it, and build a better future, including the People’s Hall building and gardens.
The White House will always be the home I was lucky enough to live in for a while. More importantly, it is a mirror of our democracy, resilient when we respect its foundations, but fragile when we take it for granted. What was demolished today was more than just marble and plaster. It reflects how easily history can be erased when power forgets purpose.
Chelsea Clinton is an author, investor, advocate, and Vice Chair of the Clinton Foundation.
