Is First Lady Melania Trump on board with plans to tear down the East Wing of the White House to build a new ballroom?
The Wall Street Journal reported in late October that Melania “privately raised concerns about tearing down the East Wing and told associates it wasn’t her project, according to administration officials.” The East Wing has traditionally been used by First Ladies as their office and also for entertaining.
Now, the president has responded to that report.
While everyone trashes Trump’s Oval Office redecoration (deservedly so), let’s take a look at the White House private residence that Melania Trump decorated with designer Tham Kannalikham during Trump’s first term. Beautiful, isn’t it?#Melania#Trump pic.twitter.com/RL9nqe1XU7
— BWT (@BWTLRK) November 12, 2025
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According to People, the president told Laura Ingraham in a recent interview that while his wife “loved her little, tiny office” in the East Wing, she has come around to the idea of a ballroom replacing that section of the White House.
“But you know what? She’s very smart. In about one day, she— if you would ask her now, she says, ‘It’s great,’” Trump said of his wife.
Ingraham asks Trump about destroying the East Wing to build his ballroom: “There was a report that Melania didn’t love this idea. Is that true?”
Trump: “Well, she loved her little tiny office in there…If you were to ask her now, she says, ‘It’s great.'” pic.twitter.com/EK9BoXPc2i
— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) November 11, 2025
“The White House Ballroom will be substantially separated from the main building of the White House, but at the same time, its theme and architectural heritage will be almost identical,” the White House said in a press release. “The site of the new ballroom will be where the small, heavily changed, and reconstructed East Wing currently sits.”
In the Ingraham interview, Trump was critical of the former decorative choices of the East Wing.
“The East Wing, that building, was renovated 20 times, including adding a floor to the top, which was terrible,” he said on Fox. “It was [made] out of common brick, little, tiny windows. It looked like hell… It had nothing to do with the original building… and I didn’t want to sacrifice a great ballroom for an OK ballroom by leaving it right smack in the middle.”
The president has been criticized for fast-tracking the East Wing teardown without going through proper channels.
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
