East Wing demolition triggers outcry — and mixed feelings from state dinner attendees

The demolition of the East Wing at the White House to make way for President Trump's vision of a splashy, massive ballroom, is triggering an enormous outcry from critics — but for many who have experienced glitzy state dinners firsthand, it's eliciting mixed feelings. 

Trump, who originally said the ballroom would be near but “not touching” the existing building, revealed Wednesday that the entire East Wing was being demolished following conversations with architects. 

“In order to do it properly we had to take down the existing structure,” Trump, flanked by renderings of the ballroom, told reporters in the Oval Office.

The $300 million project, originally announced in July and estimated at that time to cost $200 million, will create a 90,000-square-foot ballroom that Trump has said will be funded through private donations and serve as a “beautiful” space to host world leaders. 

Critics have lambasted Trump’s changes to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

“The East Wing of the White House is being demolished so that Donald Trump can construct a ballroom where he will be celebrated like a king,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said this past week. 

“They’re going to spend $200-effing million to build a large, fancy White House ballroom,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said shortly after the ballroom plans were unveiled in July.

“It keeps getting worse,” Schumer said. 

But some past state dinner attendees and journalists who have covered black-tie events at the White House say there are some practical purposes behind the controversial project. 

“If you’ve ever been, you know that there’s very limited space in either the State Dining Room or the East Room," said Sean Spicer, the former White House press secretary in Trump’s first term.

“You’re talking about 200 people that can fit into the East Room,” Spicer said.

“It’s very limiting in terms of what you can currently do, how many people you can have, what events you can have. But if you can fit close to 1,000 people — which is what they estimate for this — you can suddenly open the White House up to a lot more people for a lot more events,” Spicer said.

One former White House aide acknowledged that large events were always “annoying” because of the lack of space, saying that sometimes big dinners would need to be split up among various spaces and some attendees would be frustrated that they weren’t in the same room as the president. 

Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons, who worked as communications director for former Vice President Kamala Harris, acknowledged that there are space concerns for big events. 

“There is an argument to building an entertainment space,” Simmons said. “The question is what the plan looks like.” 

The president had lamented the use of outdoor tents for state dinners, built to accommodate additional guests, describing them as a “disaster” when it rains and “more than a football field away from the main entrance.”

“I think part of the joy and specialness of the state dinner is you are dining inside the White House. You are eating off of china that is historic, and using the silver, and the crystal and all those things,” said Kate Bennett, a former CNN White House correspondent who has covered multiple state dinners.

“What people don't realize is that the White House curators do not allow those items to leave the physical building of the White House — meaning not even to go down to the tented dinners. Everything is rented, essentially,” said Bennett, who is now a communications strategist.

“For me, the state dinners that were in the tents just felt a little more performative than traditional,” Bennett said. 

But Bennett disputed Trump's criticism that the tent being set up “a hundred yards” from the White House was problematic.

“It’s not a pretty sight. The women with their lovely evening gowns, all of their hair all done and they’re a mess by the time they get there,” Trump said this month.

“No one was sinking their Manolo Blahniks into the South Lawn. That wasn't a thing,” Bennett said, adding that shuttle buses or trolleys were provided for guests from the White House to the tent set up for the state dinners.

Josh Lederman reflected fondly on the Italy state dinner in 2016, the last one hosted by President Obama, that he attended as a guest while a White House reporter for The Associated Press. The event was held in one of the outdoor tents that Trump has belittled. 

“It was stunning. It was clearly a lot of work for the White House staff to erect that whole tent and all of the decorations,” said Lederman, now a fellow at Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs.

“Everything was impeccable. And it was really incredible to see that space set up in a short amount of time and then just prepared in such a beautiful and welcoming way.”

The addition of the East Wing came in 1942, during Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency.

Originally built to provide room for additional staffers and workspaces, the East Wing eventually became the hub for the first lady, serving as the location of her office, as well as the social secretary and several other departments. 

Hillary Clinton has decried the construction of the ballroom.

“It’s not his house. It’s your house. And he’s destroying it,” the former secretary of State wrote of Trump in a Tuesday social media post that came before the commander in chief acknowledged the East Wing was being razed.

None of the representatives for the other living former first ladies — including Laura Bush, Michelle Obama and Jill Biden — responded to The Hill's requests for comment about the demolition of the East Wing. A spokesperson in Melania Trump's press office declined to comment, and the first lady hasn't made any public remarks about the project.

Some frequent visitors and guests at the White House have expressed a profound sadness at the destruction of the East Wing to build the ballroom.

“It feels devastating to lose all of the history and tradition of those spaces,” one past state dinner guest said. 

“You think of the towering figures of American history who have graced those spaces over so many years, and to think that those are being swept away feels like a real loss,” the person said.

Since the demolition began, a stream of photos have been posted on social media featuring memorable moments of former presidents and first ladies in the East Wing.

In one photo, Ronald and Nancy Reagan take in a movie in the White House theater. In another snapshot, Barack Obama runs alongside his dog, Bo. Another photo shows former first lady Rosalynn Carter talking with an aide in her office. 

The East Wing was also where a number of first lady initiatives began including Bush’s literacy efforts and Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign. 

For many, it’s more than a building. It is part of the nation’s history. And those, like Simmons, who have worked on the White House grounds, questioned how it was allowed, virtually unchecked, to begin with. 

“My question is if the president can decide anything he wants about changing the White House, what if he decided to paint it purple?” said Simmons, the former Harris aide. 

“There must be some structure around physical changes which is a national monument and symbol of the country,” Simmons said.

Spicer refuted the idea that the demolition was erasing history, maintaining that the ballroom is simply an addition.

“There’s no erasing anything,” he said in an interview. 

“I haven’t heard anyone complain so far that I’ve seen about the architecture. It’s in keeping with the current thing. It looks great,” Spicer said.  

“If you look at what’s happening, this mostly comes down to the fact that it’s Trump who’s doing it,” Spicer said. “That’s it.” 

Michael LaRosa, former press secretary to Jill Biden, remembered peering out his office window — which was in the East Wing directly next to the first lady's -- to gaze at the "great view of Marine One flying in and out."

While calling the space being reduced to rubble "sad" and "heartbreaking," LaRosa said Trump's ballroom is a necessary addition.

"We hosted the French, who hosted and entertained at the Elysee Palace. We hosted them on a tent on the South Lawn," he said of the 2022 state dinner at the White House. 

"I don't think that there's any question a ballroom is probably needed," LaRosa said. "But I understand a lot of the sadness around the East Wing, because I feel it myself."