Not everyone is pleased with President Donald Trump’s latest project at the White House. Workers are tearing down the East Wing to build a massive ballroom, and it turns out even First Lady Melania Trump is not happy about it.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Melania “privately raised concerns about tearing down the East Wing and told associates it wasn’t her project.” The space has always been tied to the first lady’s staff and events.
In the early days, Melania seemed to support her husband’s makeover plans. Earlier this year, PEOPLE reported that she liked some of the White House changes because they made it feel more like their Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. “Anytime Melania and Donald can make the White House feel more like Mar-a-Lago, they will,” one source said. “They love Mar-a-Lago.”
But this latest move may have crossed a line. Images and videos showing excavators tearing into the Roosevelt-era East Wing have left many Americans stunned and angry. Historians and preservation groups say the demolition threatens to destroy a piece of the nation’s history that cannot be replaced.
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When a reporter pressed Trump about the project, the president snapped back. “I haven’t been transparent? Really?” he said to Reuters journalist Jeff Mason. “I’ve shown this to everybody that would listen. Third rate reporters didn’t see it because they didn’t look. You’re a third rate reporter, always have been.”
Trump claimed that the new construction has “gotten great reviews,” though critics say otherwise. The National Capital Planning Commission, which oversees major federal construction projects, has not received any formal plans for the ballroom.
Will Scharf, a Trump ally who chairs that commission, argued that the administration “didn’t need approval for demolition, only for construction.” Preservation experts were not convinced.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation sent a letter to the White House urging Trump to pause demolition until the full plan could be reviewed.
The group wrote, “We are deeply concerned that the massing and height of the proposed new construction will overwhelm the White House itself and permanently disrupt its classical design.”
White House spokesman Davis Ingle pushed back, saying the president is “working 24/7 to Make America Great Again, including his historic beautification of the White House, at no taxpayer expense.”
Still, not everyone sees it as beautification. Edward Lengel, a former chief historian at the White House Historical Association, told CNN that America’s founders “would have been disgusted” by the scale of Trump’s plans. He warned that the massive ballroom “is going to cast the Executive Mansion into the shade and turn it much more into a presidential palace.”
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery
