New photographs out there Thursday seem to indicate your entire White Home East Wing has been demolished to make means for President Donald Trump’s $300 million ballroom.
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the demolition as she confronted questions from reporters at Thursday’s briefing.
President Trump initially stated in July that the mission wouldn’t intervene with the prevailing White Home construction. Then this week, as crews started to raze the East Wing, an official stated the “entirety of the East Wing shall be modernized” as the huge 90,000 sq. foot ballroom is constructed.
By Thursday, satellite tv for pc photographs from Planet Labs PBC confirmed the East Wing diminished to rubble.
The East Wing of the White Home (L) in a satellite tv for pc photograph captured by Planet Labs PBC on Sep 26, 2025 together with a photograph captured on Oct. 23, 2025.
Planet Labs PBC
Work continues on the demolition of part of the East Wing of the White Home, Oct. 23, 2025, in Washington, earlier than development of a brand new ballroom.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
“That is the Folks’s Home. Why not inform the general public of that change and when it was determined that the East Wing must be demolished?” ABC Information Chief White Home Correspondent Mary Bruce requested Leavitt.
“With any development mission, modifications come. And we now have knowledgeable all of you, we have been protecting you apprised of this mission. We have proven you the renderings,” Leavitt stated.
“The plans modified when the president heard counsel from the architects and the development firms who stated that to ensure that this East Wing to be fashionable and exquisite for a lot of, a few years to come back, for it to be a really sturdy and secure construction, this section one which we’re now in was essential,” Leavitt added.
A dump truck enters a makeshift dump web site after dropping soil and particles from the East Wing of the White Home on the East Potomac Golf Course in Washington, October 23, 2025.
Jessica Koscielniak/Reuters
Jarring photographs of the development prompted a wave of backlash and questions, together with whether or not the demolition could have been stopped and who is funding the project.
“As for the price of the ballroom and the development itself, all of that’s going to be, like I’ve stated, privately funded and paid for by the president himself and lots of beneficiant patriots who’ve stepped up,” Leavitt stated. She additionally stated to count on a greenback quantity from Trump on how a lot of his personal sources he shall be committing to construct the ballroom, which he has needed to do for years.
Particles is seen at a largely demolished a part of the East Wing of the White Home, Oct. 23, 2025, in Washington, earlier than development of a brand new ballroom.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
Based on a White Home official, plans for the ballroom nonetheless haven’t been submitted to the Nationwide Capital Planning Fee. Leavitt on Thursday, when requested if the president can tear down something he needs on the White Home, argued they don’t want to hunt approval to demolish just for vertical development.
Trump himself, at a dinner for the donors earlier this month, stated he was advised by “two males” that he may make modifications with out approval.
“I stated, ‘How lengthy wouldn’t it take?’ They stated: ‘Sir, you can begin tonight. You may have zero zoning circumstances. You don’t have any approvals,'” Trump stated on the dinner. “I stated, ‘You gotta be kidding.’ He stated, ‘Sir, that is the White Home. You are the president of the US. You are able to do something you need.'”
It is a creating story. Please test again for updates.
