Trump Destroyed WHAT? My Hunt for the Remains of the East Wing

By Jessie Seigel / October 30, 2025

Destruction of the East Wing, in progress, October 22 (Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images)

That piece of rich white trash, Donald J. Trump, just wrecked my house. MY house. I don’t care what he’s the president of. He doesn’t own that house. He’s a tenant, living there rent free—on my dime. I own that White House. And so do you.

So, last Saturday (10/25), like any good owner, I went downtown to view the damage to our house for myself.

Usually, you can walk through Lafayette Park, a large green square crisscrossed by pedestrian walkways that sits opposite the White House, just across Pennsylvania Avenue. But now the park is so fenced with low barricades, chicken-wire-like fencing, and RESTRICTED AREA signs that you can only access it through one central entrance. I did that, along with others who appeared unbothered by the restrictions. Possibly they were tourists who knew no better.

In the middle of the park, two large machines with short cranes stood on either side of a statue of Andrew Jackson on horseback. “Great,” I said aloud. “Is he going to start tearing down statues too?”

Behind me, a bystander said he thought they were just going to clean the statue. In all fairness, he was probably right. They were not bulldozers, and they appeared to have open cabs for workers to stand in.

In a friendly voice, the man asked if I knew about Jesus. I was not in the mood for religious solicitations. I told him, adamantly, to leave me alone, just-leave-me-alone! And I walked on.

I had not gone more than 20 feet towards Pennsylvania Avenue before a young woman tried, with similar words, to give me literature to read. My tart answer to her: “Why don’t you stop trying to convert people and actually do something good?”

These people certainly had a right to their beliefs and to try to persuade others. But in that moment, the combination of their apparent total disinterest in the desecration occurring across the street and the fact that right-wing religious fanatics had had a hand in putting that destructive power in place was infuriating to me.

In 1995, bowing to the concerns of security agencies, then-President Bill Clinton closed the portion of Pennsylvania Avenue fronting the White House to car traffic. It became, instead, a pedestrian mall where tourists, skateboarders and protesters could gather. And one could

still walk through it from cross streets at either end. Not anymore. Now, both ends are closed, guarded by the Secret Service. And more low barricades have further limited space for pedestrians on the east end.

On Saturday, the usual small protests on a variety of issues were absent. There were at most 50 tourists milling about the White House’s wrought-iron fence, taking photos of each other in front of it.

I moved as far east along the fence as possible, trying to get a view of the rubble where the East Wing used to be, to no avail. Trump and his enablers had hidden the president’s ongoing vandalism behind pretty, clean white board walls. I had to be a contortionist to take photos of even that from between the iron fence pickets without dropping my phone.

Again, I spoke aloud, angrily—to myself, to the air, to anyone who might hear—"He doesn’t own it. How dare he tear any of it down?”

Three feet from me, a woman, well-dressed, longish brown hair, turned to look at me. I met her eyes, unsure of her reaction to my outburst.

But she said she agreed with me, that it was disgusting. Then she and her companion, standing a few feet behind her, walked away.

Everyone else around us seemed oblivious—just enjoying a nice, sunny day out.

I decided to see if I could get a better view of the East Wing’s remains from behind the White House and the White House lawn. But on that side, I was met with more fences and barricades keeping me and the rest of the public at a greater distance. Along the way, I could see two unmoving cranes piercing the sky just beyond the camouflage provided by the ground’s trees and bushes. Dwarfed by the cranes, furled narrowly around its pole, stood an American flag, looking small.

Frustrated by the shameless cover-up, I headed up 17th Street towards the Metro and home. As I passed a Secret Service agent on guard, I shook my head at him and said, “This isn’t our capital anymore.” I didn’t wait for an answer but walked on.

A full view of the demolition--one I was not able to get (Reuters / Jonathan Ernst)

The demolition of the East Wing is part of President Donald Trump's plan to build a ballroom he claims will cost $300 million on the east side of the White House. He tore the building down without obtaining required approval from the National Capital Planning Commission,

that oversees such projects.

The inveterate pathological liar claimed in July that the construction of his ballroom “won’t interfere with the current building. It’ll be near but not touching it.”

The media has noted that Trump’s actions directly contradict his earlier assurance that construction would not affect the existing White House. But Trump could argue, in Al Capone fashion, that his construction is not touching the East Wing of the White House because the East Wing is no longer there.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt proudly boasted, “This is going to be a magnificent addition to the White House for many years to come, and it’s not costing the taxpayers anything.”

In this regard, Trump has outdone Al Capone. The private donors who have committed millions upon millions of dollars thus far are a noxious Who’s Who of billionaires and corporate interests no doubt expecting returns on their investment. Knowing Trump, they may never see them.

Leavitt claimed Trump has also personally committed money to the project but refused to say how much. She said the administration would share a dollar figure at an unspecified later point. Given Trump’s record, that surely means never.

Some speculate that Trump is building a gigantic bunker under that new ballroom so he can dig in and refuse to leave in 2028. Others suggest his demolition of the First Ladies’ section of the White House is symptomatic of his misogyny. Or that building a humongous

ballroom with his name on it is part of feeding his insatiable megalomania.

Personally, I think it’s part of his revenge campaign. Trump knows he lost the 2020 election. He knows how little he won by in 2024. He knows that seven million Americans protested on No Kings Day this month, making a stand against him. So he’s tearing down the White

House to get even with all of us.

Based on their lack of action, the Republican-controlled Congress is fine with the destruction. And the current Supreme Court will rubber stamp anything Trump does.

So, it’s left to us. We the People have got to evict him. How? First, we make sure Democrats win control of Congress in 2026. Then, we impeach, convict, and remove this criminal tenant and every impeachable lackey who has assisted him.

Because I want my house back!

This article has been published simultaneously at The Insider.

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