Ronald Reagan’s daughter has blasted the “heartbreaking” demolition of the East Wing of the White House to make way for Donald Trump’s gaudy ballroom.
In a scathing opinion piece for The New York Times, author Patti Davis, the daughter of the late president and first lady Nancy Reagan, lamented how much Trump is tearing down parts of the historic building where she and her family once lived.
“The images we’ve now all seen of the East Wing being demolished are heartbreaking. Over the centuries, many presidents have altered the White House, and certainly older buildings need to be updated and repaired,” Davis, 73, wrote. “But this is complete destruction.”
Trump has been widely condemned for tearing down the East Wing of the White House without the approval of Congress or the necessary federal committees.
The eye-watering cost of the vanity project, which Trump now believes will hit $300 million, comes as millions of Americans are struggling with a cost-of-living crisis and facing health care costs that are set to more than double when Affordable Care Act subsidies expire.
The White House previously assured that Trump’s ballroom would be “substantially separated” from the main White House, be similar in architecture to the main building, and that the East Wing would not be entirely demolished.
However, photos have emerged showing that the East Wing has been flattened, and the 90,000-square-foot event space will be nearly twice the size of the executive building, which measures 55,000 square feet.
The White House released a list of donors funding the construction of the ballroom instead of taxpayers, which includes companies such as Apple and Amazon, and individuals such as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
The nature of the construction’s funding has also raised concerns that it could amount to a cash-for-access scheme and a way to curry favor with the president.
Writing for the Times, Davis expressed her outrage at the history that has been destroyed to make way for Trump’s ballroom.
“Now no one else will get to walk across that threshold and feel the richness of that history brush past them. It was where Eleanor Roosevelt walked. It was where Jacqueline Kennedy planned the Rose Garden,” she wrote.
“We silence so much when we tear down places that are there to teach us, inspire us, humble us. Ghosts and memories drift away in the dust, the wreckage, and we are all poorer as a result.”
In response to the criticism, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told the Daily Beast: “President Trump is working 24/7 to Make America Great Again, including his historic beautification of the White House, at no taxpayer expense. These long-needed upgrades will benefit generations of future presidents and American visitors to the People’s House–something we should all celebrate.”
The piece was published the same day Trump invoked Reagan in a raging social media post defending his sweeping tariff plans.
In a typically unhinged Truth Social post, Trump said he had canceled trade negotiations with Canada over an ad accused of misrepresenting an anti-tariff speech delivered by the 40th U.S. president in 1987.
“CANADA CHEATED AND GOT CAUGHT!!! They fraudulently took a big buy ad saying that Ronald Reagan did not like Tariffs, when actually he LOVED TARIFFS FOR OUR COUNTRY, AND ITS NATIONAL SECURITY,” Trump wrote.
