White House East Wing will be torn down ‘within days’ even as no plans filed for Trump’s new ballroom | Donald Trump

Trump administration officials confirmed to various media outlets on Wednesday that the East Wing of the White House would be demolished “within a matter of days”; This comes as the administration has not submitted plans for the new ballroom to the federal agency that oversees construction of federal buildings.

In a discussion with reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Reuters’ Jeff Mason asked Donald Trump to respond to widespread surprise that the entire East Wing would be demolished. Trump said He said the wing, which he described as a separate building, “was never given much thought, it was a very small building.”

“Instead of letting this damage a very expensive and beautiful building,” he continued. “To do this properly, we had to tear down the existing structure.”

Then, pointing to the model of the new ballroom on the table in front of him and the new structure leading to the ballroom where the East Wing used to be, Trump added: “As shown, it looked like we were touching the White House. We are not touching the White House.”

“It’s a bridge, a glass bridge from the White House to the ballroom,” Trump said of the new structure that will replace the East Wing.

Trump said the result “will probably be the best ballroom ever built” and that the cost of the ballroom “will be paid 100% by me and some of my friends.”

New York Times The ballroom plans would mean demolition of the entire East Wing, he said Wednesday, citing a senior administration official. The official also said the demolition should be completed by the end of this week.

Two Trump officials told NBC News Similar information states that the entire East Wing of the White House will be demolished “within a few days.”

On Tuesday, the White House said: Reuters It was intended to send plans to the National Capital Planning Commission, an agency that usually approves and oversees the construction of federal buildings. The destruction began earlier this week when journalists captured video of a digger shovel tearing through the exterior of the White House.

Plans for Trump’s 90,000-square-foot ballroom were made public in late summer, and Trump said he would personally finance the $200 million construction. “This is just another way to spend my money on construction,” he said at the time.

White House officials insist the demolition could be allowed without the commission’s approval. Will Scharf, the commission chairman appointed by Trump and also the White House chief of staff. in question In September, there was a gap between demolition and reconstruction work, and only the commission could approve new construction.

A White House official told the Guardian: “The National Planning Commission does not require permits for demolition, only permits for vertical construction. Permits will be submitted to the NPC at the appropriate time.”

But in a letter sent to the White House on Tuesday, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a leading nonprofit historic preservation organization approved by Congress, told the White House that demolition plans were “legally required” to undergo public review and called on Trump to pause the demolition.

“We are deeply concerned that the enormous height of the proposed new construction would exceed even the White House (55,000 square metres) and could also permanently disrupt the carefully balanced classical design of the White House, with its smaller and lower East and West Wings,” the group said. letter.

During Trump’s first term, the White House passed it out of committee. to organise A new fence is a much smaller project than the construction of the new ballroom.

Amid the backlash over the destruction, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News on Tuesday that “there’s a lot of fake outrage out there right now.”

Pointing out that many presidents have made changes in the White House, Leavitt said, “Although many presidents have dreamed of this, the person who actually did something about it is President Trump. And he is the chief producer of the construction. He was re-elected to this people’s house largely because he is good at building things.”

Critics pointed out that Trump said over the summer that new construction would not affect the existing structure.

“It won’t interfere with the existing building. It will be close to it, but it won’t touch it and [it] “Trump shows full respect for the existing building, which I am the biggest fan of,” he said.

On Tuesday night, late-night host Stephen Colbert took photos of the White House exterior covered in scars from the destruction and said “that’s a lie.”