Trump's East Wing Demolition Causes a Ruckus in DC

Love it or hate it, President Trump's complete demolition of the East Wing of the White House might be done as soon as this weekend, reports the New York Times. The president this week announced a dramatic escalation of his plans to build a $300 million ballroom, and those plans now call for the destruction of the entire East Wing. A few takes:

• No stopping it: The Washington Post reports there's little chance the demolition will hit a last-minute snag. The National Capital Planning Commission, charged with reviewing external construction projects at the White House, has a majority of Trump allies among its 12 members. The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit created by Congress, has called for a pause to the demolition for a thorough review, but it has no power to enforce such a demand. Nor does the DC Preservation League. "Our hands are tied," its executive director tells the newspaper. "It's very frustrating."

• Criticism: Hillary Clinton has led the charge, declaring on social media that "It's not his house. It's your house. And he's destroying it." In a post at MSNBC, Steve Benen amplifies that. "Trump is clearly driven by a core assumption, rooted in an authoritarian perspective, that he can destroy national treasures at his discretion—because he sees our treasures as his own."
• Pushing back: In a Washington Examiner op-ed, Christopher Tremoglie ridicules what he sees as the "absurd" Democratic criticism of the work as "White House ballroom construction derangement syndrome." In his view, Trump critics will hate anything he does.
• A metaphor: It turns out that both sides sees the demolition as a metaphor—they just disagree on whether it's a good or bad one. "There's no greater metaphor for what's happening right now in this country than watching Donald Trump take a wrecking ball to the White House," complained former Biden press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. But at the New York Post, Miranda Devine puts a different spin on things: "Trump's beautification and improvement projects at the White House really are a metaphor for what he is attempting for the country as a whole," she writes. The president, she asserts, is making the country better, and the "overdue" project is an example of that.