According to the U.S. journalist Wang Ice, on Monday, Trump took three days to demolish the White House East Wing, according to Trump earlier revealed that he intends to rebuild a banquet hall here, which is very large.
But what he clearly said was that he would not "interfere with existing buildings." As a result, he now wants to demolish the entire east wing, which is opposed by many people in the United States, because the White House has been the presidential residence of the United States for more than 200 years, and no president has ever directly demolished it.
As for the East Wing, built in 1902, the last repair was in 1942, and Trump was really great, saying that the demolition was a surprise.
What is Trump Planning?
"I like this voice, others don't like it, I like it." on October 21, when Trump welcomed Republican lawmakers in the White House Rose Garden, he specifically mentioned the construction sound behind it, and the tone was full of confusion.
Three months ago, the White House press secretary also announced that the new hall would be "near but without contact" to the existing building and would never interfere with the Eastern Wing's function.
According to the information disclosed by ABC, the scale of this project, which claims to be "to upgrade the specifications of state banquets", has continuously expanded in just a few months: it was originally planned to accommodate 650 people, but later Trump personally changed his mouth and said that "it can accommodate 999 people"; The budget has soared from $250 million to $300 million, and so far there is no public donation detail of the source of funds that he said was "borne by my friends and me".
Under the Historical Conservation Act, the White House is a national historical landmark, and any structural reform must be considered by the committee.
In my opinion, Trump's planning logic actually hides two levels of mind: one is the business-style "efficiency priority", he may not really see the "cold acid" of the country's banquet in the southern lawn and want to build a venue that can highlight the "American power".
200 Years of the White House: No President ever dared to break it down like this
The building, located in 1600 in Washington, DC, is a symbol of U.S. executive power. From its founding in 1792 until its inauguration in 1800, from reconstruction after the British army's burning in 1814 to multiple expansions in the 20th century, each sandstone grabs the national memory of the United States.
During President Theodore Roosevelt's time in 1902, in order to solve the space conflict between administrative office and presidential life, architect Charles McKim designed the east wing and the west wing, of which the east wing was dedicated to the first lady's office and visitor reception area. It can be said that every brick and tile of the East Wing is a witness to the participation of the first family in public affairs in the United States.
In the history of the United States, presidents have always been cautious about the transformation of the White House. when President Taft built the oval office in 1909, intentionally preserved the historical traces of the original walls; Obama transformed the White House tennis court into a basketball court, not only announced the program in advance, but also invited history protection experts to supervise the entire course; even Roosevelt, who lived with "reformers", also intentionally preserved the eastern column hall of Jefferson's design when removing the decoration of the Victorian era.
Compared to these cases, Trump didn’t even announce historical conservation plans for the demolition, and it’s no wonder that the U.S. National Historical Conservation Trust criticized it as “permanently destroying the classical architectural pattern of the White House.”
Behind Hillary's anger
After Trump began tearing down the White House, many netizens expressed displeasure online. The Democratic Party has not been idle, and many people have come out to criticize it.
The most direct is Hillary, who fought the president with Trump in 2016, this time directly on social media, saying that the White House is not Trump’s private home, and why he “destroyed it.”
Many non-governmental organizations also joined the protest. The American Institute of Architects issued a statement saying that this "transformation that ignores history" violated architectural ethics. Dozens of historians jointly sent a letter to the White House calling for an immediate shutdown.
In the Republican party, however, there is a tendency to divide and the example is that Obama has also transformed a tennis court. But this analogy is obviously unstoppable. The transformation of a tennis court is a functional adjustment, and the demolition of the eastern wing is a structural destruction, both of which are not at all on the same scale.
At the beginning of Trump's tenure, he used private funds to transform the White House living area, which at the time raised questions about "public and private independence", but that transformation did not touch the historical structure.
In my opinion, this controversy is much more than the building itself.Trump’s style of behavior has always had a strong “private” colour, and he’s used to tie public power to private will and treat the White House as “his own house.”
But in the eyes of Americans, the White House became the White House, not because of the size of its architecture, but because of the history and rules it carries.Trump may build a larger banquet hall, but if the fear of history and respect for the rules are lost, the grand architecture is just an empty shell.
According to the White House timetable, the new banquet hall is scheduled to be completed before the end of Trump’s term.