Demolition of a section of the East Wing of the White House, during construction on the new ballroom extension of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025.
The White House will demolish the entire East Wing to make room for the massive ballroom that President Donald Trump is building, a senior administration official told The New York Times on Wednesday.
The demolition work should be complete by this weekend, the official told the Times. A White House official told CNBC that "the entire East Wing is undergoing modernization and renovation."
Images showing the demolition of part of the East Wing triggered public anger this week. The White House has dismissed the furor as "manufactured outrage."
The White House in a statement Tuesday called the ballroom "a bold, necessary addition that echoes the storied history of improvements and additions" by prior presidents.
Trump promised in July that the East Wing's structure would not be touched to build the $250 million, 90,000-square-foot ballroom.
"It'll be near it but not touching it, and pays total respect to the existing building, which I'm the biggest fan of," Trump said at the time.
Trump has chosen McCrery Architects to design the ballroom. The construction team is led by Clark Construction and the engineering team is headed by AECOM, according to a White House statement from July.