White House satellite images lay absolute | Political News

New satellite images of the White House have laid naked the true destruction of the historic building’s East Wing as President Donald Trump continues to construct his $300 million ballroom.

With one of the photographs taken in September 2025, one of the images exhibits the East Wing fully intact, while another exhibits the broken portion of the building just a month later.

Trump said Wednesday that maintaining the East Wing would have “hurt a very, very expensive, beautiful building” that he said presidents have needed for years. He said “me and some friends of mine” pays for the ballroom at no value to taxpayers.

Trump allowed the demolition to start this week despite not yet having approval from the related authorities companies with jurisdiction over construction on federal property.

Preservationists have also urged the Trump administration to halt the demolition until plans for the 90,000-square-foot (8,361-square-meter) ballroom can go through the required public review course of.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation said the review course of, including time for members of the public to remark on plans for the ballroom, would “provide a crucial opportunity for transparency and broad engagement — values that have guided preservation of the White House under every administration going back to the public competition in 1792 that produced the building’s original design.”

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President Trump and his administration started demolishing the East Wing of The People’s House on Monday as the president moved full steam forward to full the 900-person ballroom before the end of his time period in workplace. President Trump has tried to guarantee the public that the construction of the ballroom won’t intervene with current buildings.

“It gained’t intervene with the current building. It gained’t be. It’ll be close to it but not touching it — and pays complete respect to the prevailing building, which I’m the largest fan of,” said President Trump in July after the White House announced the project. “It’s my favorite. It’s my favorite place. I love it.”

President Trump has justified the continued construction of the ballroom during the government shutdown because the American taxpayer is not paying for it; rather, an exclusive list of donors — including the president — have forked over their own money to the project.

During her briefing on Thursday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters to just “trust the method” while addressing concerns about the demolition of the East Wing. Leavitt revealed the ballroom is “actually the president’s main precedence,” while rejecting criticism that the White House is not being transparent and making decisions without oversight.

“We have informed all of you. We’ve been maintaining you apprised of this project. We confirmed you renderings,” Leavitt said.”We have launched the full record of donors thus far. Perhaps there shall be more people who need to generously contribute to this project. Trust the method. The president has dedicated his own assets.”

When asked about the jump in the project price, which started at $200 million, Leavitt responded curtly with “With any construction project, there are modifications over time as you assess what the project goes to seem like. We’ll continue to keep you apprised about all of those modifications. But trust the method.”