White House East Wing demolished for Trump’s $300M ballroom – see photos

The White House's East Wing has now been completely torn down to make way for Donald Trump's giant new $300 million ballroom, and a gray and brown patch of rubble can now be seen there, according to the new satellite image. The newly released satellite images showed that the area that once served as the office of the First Lady has now been turned into rubble, AP reported.

Tech industry donors back white house ballroom project

Trump announced that the new ballroom would be funded entirely by private donors and himself. On Thursday, the White House released a list of the donors to AFP, which includes US tech titans Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta and Palantir, as well as defence giant Lockheed Martin. Individual donors comprise the family of Trump's Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who gained fame as investors portrayed in the movie "The Social Network" about the founding of Facebook."How much am I donating? I won't be able to tell you until it's finished," Trump told reporters on Thursday. "I'll donate whatever's needed, I'll tell you that." Many US presidents have undertaken upgrades to the White House, but Trump's ballroom is the largest in more than a century.

New ballroom plan raise questions over costs

The sweeping demolition, far more drastic than initially promised by President Donald Trump, has left Washington stunned.

When Trump first announced his grand plan in July, he assured Americans that the new 90,000-square-foot ballroom would sit “near” the main building, “but not touching it.”

Now, he’s taken a different tune. After “consulting architects,” Trump declared that “really knocking it down” made more sense than a partial teardown. The new 1,000-seat ballroom—intended to host state dinners and events that currently take place under temporary tents—has ballooned in cost, too. The White House first pegged it at $200 million, then $250 million, and now Trump says $300 million. But don’t worry, says Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt: “It’s not going to cost the taxpayers a dime.”