Trump demolishes part of the White House to build extravagant ballroom
Donald Trump has been smashing up part of the White House to make room for his fancy new ballroom, with a giant hole visible in the building at the heart of American democracy.
Construction crews yesterday (20 October) tore down a chunk of wall in the East Wing of the building with the US President claiming this renovation work would be 'fully modernising' the place.
Earlier this year, Trump had said that his new ballroom would be 'near' the White House, but wouldn't actually touch it.
In July, he had said: "It won't interfere with the current building. It won't be. It'll be near it but not touching it - and pays total respect to the existing building, which I'm the biggest fan of.
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"It's my favourite. It's my favourite place. I love it."
Announcing the construction project on social media, Trump declared: "For more than 150 years, every President has dreamt about having a Ballroom at the White House to accommodate people for grand parties, State Visits, etc."
The project is expected to cost $250 million (£186 million) and Trump has claimed that money has come in from 'many generous Patriots' who have donated cash to the project, though the White House has not released details on the donors.
He also said that the construction work which has smashed a gigantic hole in the White House won't interfere with the usual operation of government as he said the East Wing was 'completely separate' from the rest of the building.
The White House has been changed and renovated many times before, with various sporting facilities being one of the primary reasons behind these changes and tweaks, including swimming pools being turned into press rooms, the installation of bowling alleys and Barack Obama putting in a tennis court.
Trump has other construction projects on his mind as well, as during his unveiling of plans for the ballroom he also announced plans to construct a triumphal arch in Washington DC.
“Every time somebody rides over that beautiful bridge to the Lincoln Memorial, they literally say something is supposed be here. We have versions of it… This is a mock-up,” Trump said, holding up a miniature model of the various versions they could build.
“In 1902, they were going to put a statue of Robert E. Lee up - would have been okay with me. A lot of people wouldn't have liked it, would have been okay with me
"It would have been okay with a lot of the people in this room, but they didn’t do that."
For those not up on their American history, Robert E. Lee was the most prominent general of the Confederacy, the defeated faction in the American Civil War which had fought to preserve slavery in the southern American states.
Trump has also been precious about his ballroom plans before, as Jimmy Kimmel's recent brush with unemployment came after he called out the US President for verbally wandering off while speaking about the killing of Charlie Kirk to talk about the upcoming ballroom construction.
Topics: Donald Trump, US News
Joe Harker