WORK CREWS BEGAN tearing down the East Wing of the White House on Monday to make room for a new $250m ballroom.

The demolition is the latest part of the huge makeover Trump has given the White House since returning to power, including covering the Oval Office with gold decor and paving over the Rose Garden.

The US President previously said the new ballroom wouldn’t interfere with the existing building as the East Wing is “completely separate from the White House itself,” but it’s actually physically joined to the main mansion by a covered colonnade.

A mechanical excavator ripped through the facade of the East Wing, which was built in 1942, leaving broken masonry, rubble and steel wires.

Trump warned college baseball players he was hosting at the White House on Monday that “right on the other side you have a lot of construction that you might hear occasionally.”

A mechanical excavator ripped through the facade of the East Wing. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

He later officially announced that work had started on the ballroom, the biggest addition to the US presidential mansion in more than a century.

“I am pleased to announce that ground has been broken on the White House grounds to build the new, big, beautiful White House Ballroom,” Trump said on his Truth Social network.

Trump said the East Wing was being “fully modernized as part of this process, and will be more beautiful than ever when it is complete!”

The East Wing is where US first ladies have traditionally had their offices. The president works in the West Wing and the couple live in the Executive Mansion.

‘Generous Patriots’

Trump says the new 90,000-square-foot ballroom with a capacity of 1,000 people is needed to host large state dinners and other events that currently have to be held in a tent.

The former reality TV star held a dinner at the White House last week for donors to the ballroom.

The guests included representatives from tech firms like Amazon, Apple, Meta, Google, Microsoft and Palantir and defence giant Lockheed Martin – all companies with significant contracts or other dealings with the government.

“The White House Ballroom is being privately funded by many generous Patriots, Great American Companies, and, yours truly. This Ballroom will be happily used for Generations to come!” he said on Monday.

With additional reporting from AFP