Construction continues on the largely demolished portion of the East Wing of the White House ahead of construction of a new ballroom, Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025, in Washington.
Jacqueline Martin | AP
Demolition of the East Wing of the White House is nearly complete as President Donald Trump moves forward with plans to build a massive ballroom, administration officials told NBC News on Thursday.
Construction workers are currently focused on removing debris, the official said. Photos showed much of the building reduced to rubble.
President Trump said Wednesday that the 90,000-square-foot ballroom will cost $300 million, more than the original estimate of $200 million.
The White House dismissed public outrage over the demolition as a “manufactured outrage.” The Ministry of Finance, which is clearly aware of the demolition, has prohibited its staff from sharing photos.
President Trump promised in July that the banquet hall would not affect the east wing.
“It’s close, but we don’t touch it, and we have complete respect for the existing building. I’m the biggest fan of that,” Trump said at the time.
Asked about the demolition on Wednesday, President Trump said the East Tower was “very small” and that he “never thought about it being anything major.”
“To do it properly, we had to dismantle the existing structure,” the president told reporters.
Construction workers (bottom right, above the U.S. Treasury) look on as construction continues on the largely demolished portion of the White House east wing in advance of construction of the new ballroom, Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025, in Washington.
Jacqueline Martin | AP
A senior White House official cited “structural reasons” for the decision to demolish the East Wing in response to questions from CNBC on Wednesday.
White House press secretary Caroline Levitt said Thursday that the administration does not need to submit demolition plans to the National Capital Planning Commission.
“Their general counsel has stated that legally no filings are required for the first phase of this project, the demolition of the current east wing structure, only for vertical construction,” Levitt told reporters.
Image after the East Wing of the White House was demolished. The image is from October 23, 2025.
Source: Planet Labs
Levitt said he was not aware of any other major projects Trump has planned for the White House, saying, “Right now, the banquet hall is the president’s top priority.”
President Trump said the construction would be funded by his own funds and donations from private companies at no cost to taxpayers. Donors include tech giants Amazon, apple, alphabet, microsoft and Meta.
The White House released a list of corporate and individual donors.
Altria Group Inc.AmazonAppleBooz Allen Hamilton Inc.Caterpillar Inc.CoinbaseComcast CorporationJ.Pepe and Emilia FanjulHard Rock InternationalGoogleHP Inc.Lockheed Martin MetaplatformMicron TechnologyMicrosoft NextEra Energy Inc.Palantir Technologies RippleReynolds AmericanT-MobileTether American Union Pacific RailroadAdelson Family FoundationStephan E. BrodieBetty Waldo Johnson FoundationCharles and Marissa CascarillaEdward & Shari GlaserHarold HammBenjamin Leon Jr.Rutnick FamilyLaura and Isaac Perlmutter FoundationStephen A. SchwarzmanConstantin SokoloffKelly Loeffler and Jeff SprescherPaolo TiramaniCameron WinklevossStyler Winklevoss
Disclosure: CNBC’s current parent company, Comcast, is on our list of corporate donors. It’s unclear how much Comcast contributed to the project. CNBC will be spun off from Comcast under the ownership of new parent company Versant.
