The History We Lost When Trump Tore Down the East Wing

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Guest Essay

Oct. 20, 2026

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· 13:49 min

By Azadeh Moaveni

Ms. Moaveni is a contributing Opinion writer.

Almost a year has passed since excavators demolished the storied East Wing of the White House to make way for a new ballroom. The surprise destruction took just three days; most Americans heard about it only after a disbelieving onlooker sent a picture to The Washington Post. The paper verified the tip and published the news, which blazed through social media. Only then did the president inform the nation.

Since then, Americans, overwhelmingly aghast at President Trump’s ballroom project, have cycled through phases of shock, denial and grief. The press portrays the ballroom as a big frivolous party room, reveling in the new building’s tackiness — the oily gilt, the superfluous stairs to nowhere, its ungainly size. Even a former White House social secretary who supports the plan told me she fears it will resemble the Kremlin. But the Supreme Court’s decision in late August allowing construction to continue means that the president’s vision will proceed as a fait accompli, despite other legal challenges.

Democrats energized by the public’s sourness on the project compete for the most outré ideas for its post-2028 future: tearing it down on Day 1; selling off its contents and then tearing it down; converting it into a museum of authoritarian corruption; making it a soup kitchen. At the very least, one suggested, it should be renamed for former President Barack Obama.

Perhaps it is time that we looked at how, exactly, this particular bit of White House real estate has been deployed after it was built around the turn of the last century. Since the East Wing evolved as a base for the first lady’s staff in the era of Eleanor Roosevelt, its purpose had always been to advance diplomacy and soft power, especially that of the first lady.

And perhaps in that history lies its future. Yes, the entire historic structure is gone — and that was badly, injuriously done — but what will rise in its place will very much be part and parcel of the traditional East Wing. A party is never just a party in Washington, after all, and President Trump knows that. A grand, generous space for parties is essential, but so is the Office of the First Lady, and so far, there is little serious vision or thought devoted to this in his creation. It’s not too late.

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