Trump begins tearing down part of the White House to build a ballroom that will cost more than $200 million

The facade of the east wing of the White House It has begun to decompose into rubble. A scene imagined in a multitude of dystopian films and series that becomes a reality due to the real estate plans of Donald Trumpwhich now reach the very presidential residence of the United States.

The works are part of the Republican president’s project to build a ballroom with a budgeted cost of more than 200 million dollars. Although Trump promised that the new facility would be an annex and that the original structure of the property would not be changed, the excavator shovel leaves no room for doubt.

As reported by the Trump Administration a few weeks ago in a statement, the new facility was going to be “substantially separated” from the main building. However, as several journalists were able to confirm, The original structure of the White House will be affected.

A White House official confirmed to the newspaper The Washington Poston condition of anonymity, that the demolitions seen this Monday are to build the hall and noted that the space will replace the east wing.

During his meeting with a university baseball team, Trump confirmed the start of construction. “We are building a ballroom. It just started today”.

Trump has ordered the construction of a ballroom in the White House of about 8,000 square meters and with a capacity for up to 900 people, as he told the network last week. NBC.

The project has an estimated cost of more than $200 million, which, according to the White House, will be covered by donations from the president himself and other “patriots”.

The company in charge of the works is the construction company Clark, based in the state of Virginia and responsible for emblematic projects in the US capital such as the Capital One Arena stadium and the L’Enfant Plaza park. The design corresponds to the firm McCrery Architects, which will preserve the American neoclassical style that prevails in the White House.

The east wing is one of the last spaces in the presidential complex that Trump had left to remodel to his liking. If the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room are filled with gold decoration, the Rose Garden is similar to the one the president has in his Mar-a-Lago residence. He has also remodeled the rooms on the upper floor and now he wants to erect a triumphal arch like that of the Champs Elysées in Paris.