#east-wing-demolition

#east-wing-demolition

White House tours are set to resume Tuesday, just in time for the holidays - and with a much smaller footprint than before this year's East Wing demolition. The tours were on a three-month hiatus because of President Trump's decision to build an estimated $300 million ballroom, which resulted in the East Wing's removal. Images of the demolition sparked controversy and outrage with some suggesting the excavators tearing into the East Wing were a metaphor for Trump's approach to the government since returning to office.

The web page includes a "Major Events Timeline," which details the renovations following the War of 1812 and the construction of the Oval Office in 1909, for example. But last week, the administration added a number of entries to the timeline about supposed misdeeds by the Clinton, Obama and Biden administrations - some of which included flagrant misinformation. After the changes were met with widespread criticism, the site appears to have removed those items.

"Not affecting me at all, to be honest," a White House aide tells WIRED. This source, who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the press, adds they "have not thought about it" and that they've "probably only heard a handful of people talking about it." President Donald Trump is moving ahead on a multi-hundred-million-dollar, privately funded ballroom that would supplant the East Wing, which was added onto the White House in 1902 before undergoing an expansion in 1942.

"Certain areas are being left," said Trump of the privately funded project. "We determined that after really a tremendous amount of study with some of the best architects in the world, we determined that really knocking it down, trying to use a little section, the East Wing was not much. It was not much left from the original," he added. "In order to do it properly, we had to take down the existing structure."

"Won't interfere with the current building. ... It'll be near it but not touching it - and pays total respect to the existing building, which I'm the biggest fan of."