White House East Wing demolition begins for Trump ballroom construction

Demolition of the White House East Wing begins, marking the start of physical construction on Trump's planned ballroom. Work proceeds during a government shutdown that same month; a White House Office of Management and Budget memo confirms construction is privately funded and unaffected by federal budget negotiations. The project involves tearing down the existing structure to make way for a 90,000-square-foot neoclassical ballroom and an underground bunker with military and medical infrastructure. Preservationists and architectural historians raise alarms about permanent alterations to a historic structure that has housed every presidential administration since John Adams, without the public comment periods normally required under the National Historic Preservation Act.