The East Wing of the White House has now been demolished as construction crews turn their attention to debris removal, a White House official said.
Almost all of the East Terrace, the colonnade that connected the White House main building to the outer East Wing structure, has also been torn down.
The East Terrace structure contained the White House movie theater, which will be rebuilt eventually, the official said.
Administration officials had said Wednesday that the demolition work to pave the way for President Donald Trump’s planned ballroom would be completed “within days.”
Trump had said in July that the ballroom “won’t interfere with the current building,” but he said Wednesday that it was determined “after really a tremendous amount of study with some of the best architects in the world” that it would be better to start over.
“In order to do it properly, we had to take down the existing structure,” he said.
In his comments Wednesday, Trump also said the project would now cost about $300 million, up from his original estimate of $200 million. The entire tab is being paid by donors, including himself, he said.
It’s “going to be probably the finest ballroom ever built, and we’re doing it to no cost to the country,” Trump said.
Asked about the escalating price tag on Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “With any construction project, there are changes over time as you assess what the project is going to look like, and we’ll continue to keep you apprised of all of those changes.”
