Since President Trump returned to Washington in January, he has been moving at warp speed to leave his mark.
Think: Shrinking the federal government, shuttering agencies, making unilateral funding decisions and deploying National Guard troops in cities despite protests by local officials.
But his latest project — bringing in bulldozers to knock down the entire East Wing of the White House — has struck a particular nerve among critics.
It's all everyone in Washington is talking about this week. Footage of demolition equipment tearing down part of the historical structure to allow for construction of the president's proposed 90,000-square-foot ballroom has been all over social media.
Officials at the nearby Treasury Department have even clamped down on employees sharing photos of the demolition.
Still, plenty of images have emerged of the construction site:
πΉ Demolition happening this morning
πΈ Doug Mills photo of the construction
πΈ Overhead photo of the Rose Garden Club
(Lol, this should be an Apple ad: Spectrum News's Taylor Popielarz posted, "Thanks to the new iPhone camera, I was able to get this view of the East Wing of the White House this morning as it gets demolished. This vantage point is from the south end of the Treasury Department." πΉ The footage)
Critics are furious that Trump is overhauling the historic building for what they view as a gaudy personal project, reports The Hill's Brett Samuels.
It's not just this project: Trump has also paved over the Rose Garden grass, added numerous gold dΓ©cor to the Oval Office and installed flag poles on the White House lawn.
^ Oh, and this is new: CBS News's Jennifer Jacobs reports the Trump administration is upgrading the White House bunker.
Did he really have to knock down the entire East Wing of the White House?: Trump responded to the criticism on Wednesday, arguing that yes, he had to demolish the existing structure "in order to do it properly."
What's the cost?: The White House initially said it would cost roughly $200 million. But when Trump showed renderings of the ballroom on Wednesday, he said it would cost $300 million. πΉ Watch Trump show renderings of the ballroom
Who's picking up the tab?: It's a privately funded project. The White House released a list of donors, which includes Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta, Lockheed Martin, Comcast and others. π Full list of donors
^ Tidbit: The Bulwark's Sam Stein pointed out in part that "Lockheed Martin is giving $10m for the Trump ballroom. That's more than it has spent this year on lobbying."
Have other presidents done anything like this?: Several presidents have made upgrades to the building, but a former chief historian for the White House Historical Association told The Hill that nothing in the past quite matches the scale of Trump's plans. Read more: '5 times the White House underwent major renovations'
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