U.S. presidential historian Douglas Brinkley has described Donald Trump’s ongoing East Wing renovations as a “demolition derby,” calling the project unprecedented in modern White House history.

Washington

Demolition has begun at the White House East Wing to create space for a new ballroom, with sections built in 1902 and 1942, including the First Lady's office, being torn down. The planned ballroom will accommodate up to 650 people and is funded by private donors and President Trump.

Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley described the demolition as unprecedented in scale and expressed concern over the lack of public input and proper review by oversight bodies such as the National Capital Planning Commission. Brinkley noted that while renovations have occurred in the past, this project differs in its approach and transparency.

White House 'demolition derby' unprecedented, historian says

You probably hear the beautiful sound of construction to the back. You hear that sound? Oh, that's music to my ears. I love that sound. When I hear that sound, it reminds me of money. In this case, it reminds me of lack of money because I'm paying for it. That was President Trump today speaking about the newly started construction at the White House East Wing. A demolition is underway to make space for a large ballroom. CBS News has learned some sections of the East Wing, built in 1902 and 1942, are being torn down. That includes the First Lady's office, the Office of Legislative Affairs, and the White House Military Office. The administration announced plans for the new ballroom in July. It will be 90,000 square feet and have room for 650 people. It's also being paid for by private donors and President Trump himself. Douglas Brinkley joins us now. He's a U.S. presidential historian and professor of history at Rice University. Thank you for being here. When you see that video, is something like this unprecedented? Well, seeing a demolition derby on the East Wing of the White House is certainly unprecedented. Renovation, of course, is not. You know, most famously, you know, Theodore Roosevelt who dubbed it the White House and the East Wing in 1902. And then you have by the 1940s, Harry Truman and Bess Truman had to leave the White House for four years to get renovations done, stayed in Blair House across the way. But those were because, you know, for example, of Truman, because of disrepair. What we're feeling now is this is about President Trump's gilded, you know, love of gold and, you know, the Trump Tower in Mar-a-Lago. It doesn't feel like a historic renovation. It feels like a wrecking ball to build a larger and larger ballroom that was supposed to be about 600 people and now it could be 900 people. And so it's sort of sad for a professional historian like myself to see those gaping and horrible images of our people's house, the White House, not only being renovated in such a haphazard way, I don't care if it's private funded or not, but the American people weren't brought in and more importantly, the National Capital Planning Commission wasn't properly brought in to do renovations of our great White House in a proper fashion. So we mentioned that President Trump says that this is needed, the White House is in need of a grand ballroom. Where does the White House right now host big events? Well, look, if you would walk in what President Trump's objected to was that feeling of the canopy tent and it could be cold or it could be rainy and he wanted something more palatial, something that had a feel of, you know, he's visiting world leaders like Vladimir Putin or he's going to Qatar and he's impressed by all of that. He doesn't understand the fact of our frontier democracy, our humility, our law and order, our constitution, that you ask the American public about the renovations and share that with us. Instead, we're in the middle of a government shutdown, nobody's talking to each other and you're seeing a kind of, you know, Trump's gold vision coming to root in the White House that he is simply sitting there as a custodian of. It's not his home, it belongs to the American people and you don't want to get it like we're doing with so much that a new Democrat president gets in and they change it back and then Trumpian comes in and they go back to gold, back and forth. It seems to me the dialogue with the American people was missing and it seems to not have been properly vetted by Society of Architects or by the National Capital Planning Commission like it should have been. All right, Douglas Brinkley, thank you.

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Breakdown