Work continues connected a mostly demolished portion of the East Wing of the White House, Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025, successful Washington, earlier operation of a caller ballroom.
Jacquelyn Martin | AP
The demolition of the White House East Wing is astir implicit arsenic President Donald Trump pushes up with plans to physique a monolithic ballroom, an medication authoritative told NBC News Thursday.
Construction crews are present turning their attraction to debris removal, the authoritative said. Photos showed the gathering mostly reduced to rubble.
Trump said Wednesday that the 90,000 quadrate ft ballroom volition outgo $300 million, higher than the archetypal estimated terms tag of $200 million.
The president had promised successful July that the ballroom would not interaction the East Wing.
"It'll beryllium adjacent it but not touching it, and pays full respect to the existing building, which I'm the biggest instrumentality of," Trump said astatine the time.
When asked astir the demolition connected Wednesday, Trump said the East Wing was "very small" and "never thought of arsenic being much."
"In bid to bash it decently we had to instrumentality down the exising structure," the president told reporters.
A elder White House authoritative cited "structural reasons" for the determination to sound down East Wing erstwhile asked by CNBC connected Wednesday.
Construction workers, bottommost right, atop the U.S. Treasury, ticker arsenic enactment continues connected a mostly demolished portion of the East Wing of the White House, Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025, successful Washington, earlier operation of a caller ballroom.
Jacquelyn Martin | AP
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