Imagine for a moment that you live rent-free in a historic home. You decide you want to double the size of the main residence and begin demolition without getting approval of the owner or applying for requisite permits.
What do you think would happen? I think you’d go to jail or be sued into oblivion. Or both.
That’s what’s happened to the White House this week.
The odds that there will be repurcussions? Zilch. Trump makes Teflon Reagan look sticky.
Government Shutdown. Health care costs rising. But hey, at least the President’s getting a new ballroom in Washington?
— Captain Mark Kelly (@captmarkkelly.bsky.social) October 21, 2025 at 11:39 AM
The grotesque saga
Donald Trump decided he wanted a gaudy ballroom (supposedly akin to the one in Florida) adjacent to the White House. He announced it this summer, on July 31. [There is no executive order, merely an announcement while signing an unrelated one.]
This is what Trump said on July 31, 2025:
“[The ballroom] won’t interfere with the current building. It will be near it but not touching it. It pays total respect to the existing building, which I’m the biggest fan of. It’s my favorite place. I love it.”
However, the text on the White House website, dated July 31, tells a different story. No media reps seem to have read it, even this week:
The White House Ballroom will be substantially separated from the main building of the White House, but at the same time, it’s theme and architectural heritage will be almost identical. The site of the new ballroom will be where the small, heavily changed, and reconstructed East Wing currently sits (emphasis added).
Small? It housed the offices of the First Lady and seated 200 for an intimate White House dinner. It was built in 1902; Truman modernized it in the 1940s.
This is the New York Times today, where an anonymous White House staffer says the demolition was an after thought:
But, upon further evaluation, the White House determined it was cheaper and more structurally sound to demolish the East Wing to construct the ballroom, rather than build an addition, the official said.
No. In July, the White House announced, in writing, that it would demolish the East Wing.
Trump didn’t mention the East Wing in his on video announcement He said the ballroom wouldn’t affect “the White House.” Which, technically, it does not. Sounds like a Bill Clinton level lie, erh, definition, to me.
Apparently, major media yawned. Or no one thought he’d do it. Or we were all fighting bigger fires, like attacks on the First and Fourth Amendments to the Constitution.
Oh. The original estimate? $200 million. Then $250 million. Now $300 million. And it’s two and one-half months since the announcement.
The East Wing seated an intimate 200. Back in July, the ballroom was to seat 650. This week: 999.
Josh Marshall has an interesting take on the scope creep:
The real story here is that Trump has been operating as king or dictator for going on a year. There’s no accountability for anything. No limits, no penalties … When you’ve been living the impunity lifestyle for 10 months, it grows on you. Things occur to you that wouldn’t have occurred to you before, even to a predatory malefactor overflowing with insatiable appetites… He’s increasingly reckless, acting like someone who is free from any consequences or the need for support from anyone beyond his admirers.
And Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) told Chris Hayes:
“We are not a functional nation with a rule of law any longer, and those toppled walls in the East Wing are a pretty stark reminder of that.”
I really think I should get my tomorrow's cartoon out there today, while it's fresh.
Ballroomocracy. My @smh/@theage cartoon.
— The Cathy Wilcox (@cathywilcox.bsky.social) October 21, 2025 at 9:29 PM
The missing players
You might be asking yourself how in the world can this happen to an historic building.
First, the White House is exempt from the national registry of historic places. But (a big but) it has its own overseers.
Leslie Greene Bowman, who has served under four presidents on the Committee for the Preservation of the White House, told the BBC in July, “I hope and trust that any proposed changes will honor and preserve the existing walls that have witnessed so much history. They are precious vessels of our legacy as a democracy.”
Clearly, they have not and do not. The ballroom, at 90,000 square feet, will dwarf the main White House residence, at 55,000 square feet.
If construction has begun – and demolition is the first step – then plans had to have been well along on July 31.
There is an alphabet soup of agencies that should be involved in any renovation or demolition of the White House.
Chief among them is the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC), “which approves construction work to government buildings in the Washington area.” It has not approved the design – probably because it’s not been submitted. The chair is the White House staff secretary – thus one of Trump’s top aides. He contends “the agency does not have jurisdiction over demolition work for buildings on federal property, only construction.” Pardon my French, but that’s BS.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a Congressionally chartered non-profit tasked with preserving historic buildings, wrote in a letter to the National Park Service and two administration commissions [NCPC and Commission of Fine Arts] that Trump’s proposed 90,000-square-foot addition would “overwhelm the White House itself — it is 55,000 square feet — and may also permanently disrupt the carefully balanced classical design of the White House (emphasis added).”
In conclusion, the letter reads: “The National Trust stands ready to assist the White House, the National Park Service, and relevant review agencies in exploring design alternatives and modifications that would accomplish the objectives of the Administration while preserving the historic integrity and symbolism of the People’s House.”
The White House is managed by the National Park Service, but, as part of a cabinet-level agency (Interior), NPS is in his back pocket. Nevertheless, NPS is charged with administering the Presidential Residence Act and National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) review. “This requires assessing potential impacts on historic and cultural resources in consultation with the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) and the D.C. State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO).” It has not.
Each of these groups should already have been involved. Only after approvals from NPS, NCPC, and CFA does the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) get involved with financing and logistics. Granted, financing is supposedly private donors and Trump himself (hahahahaha) but pay-to-play is for another essay.
Each of these steps has been skipped. As has conforming with existing executive orders:
– Executive Order 11593 (1971) – Protection and Enhancement of the Cultural Environment – Requires all federal agencies (including the Executive Office of the President) to “locate, inventory, and nominate to the National Register all properties under their control” and to consult with the Secretary of the Interior before altering historically significant structures. (Demolishing part of the White House without such consultation would conflict with this order.)
– Executive Order 12148 (1979), delegates emergency and historic property responsibilities to the Department of the Interior, reaffirming that federal agencies must protect historic resources even when exemptions exist.
Illegal. Ugly as sin. And, apparently, unstoppable.
And he’s done it before.
Trump ruins everything: “Trump surprised New York’s art community … when a demolition crew jackhammered the sculptures off of the building. In addition, the intricate grillwork was removed. The destruction drew a public outcry. The Met received no advance notice.”
www.forbes.com/sites/michae…
— Wonder Mutt (@wondermutt.bsky.social) October 21, 2025 at 11:41 PM
In case it’s not obvious, I’m furious.
And a warning
Marc Elias of Democracy Docket:
Even more concerning is what this project means for free and fair elections. Trump’s ballroom isn’t the work of a man who plans to pack his bags and get on a plane to Florida in January 2029. He is not generous enough to build something that will benefit the country and presidents to come. He’s building the ballroom for himself, and he’s planning to stay put to enjoy it.
Known for gnawing at complex questions like a terrier with a bone. Digital evangelist, writer, teacher. Transplanted Southerner; teach newbies to ride motorcycles. @kegill (Twitter and Mastodon.social); wiredpen.com