Trump Demolished the East Wing. Now What?

$400 million to build a ballroom. That's what Donald Trump now says it'll cost to construct his grand vision where the White House East Wing once stood—a 122-year-old structure he secretly demolished last October without asking Congress or anyone else for permission.

But there's a problem: Federal Judge Richard Leon isn't buying it, and the gaping hole where the East Wing used to be might stay empty for quite some time.

Bulldozers Before Blueprints

In October, the Trump administration razed the entire East Wing—built in 1902 and expanded in 1942—despite the president's summer promise that the project wouldn't "interfere with the current building." The strategy was classic Trump: move so fast that no court could stop you, bypass Congress by seeking private donations, and deal with the consequences later.

Last week, those consequences arrived in the form of a very skeptical federal judge. George W. Bush appointee Richard Leon skewered government lawyers defending the ballroom project, which would be as tall as the original executive mansion with nearly double its footprint.

When a Justice Department attorney compared Trump's ballroom to previous renovations like an old swimming pool, Leon wasn't having it: "The Gerald Ford swimming pool? You compare that to ripping down the East Wing and building a new East Wing? Come on."

Such judicial reactions rarely bode well for the government's case.

The Pattern of Destruction Without Construction

The East Wing demolition captures something larger about Trump's second term: destruction is easier than construction, and the administration seems much better at the former than the latter.

Take the recent Greenland clash. Trump threatened European and Canadian leaders with tariffs and unspecified consequences, ultimately settling for a tentative deal that closely resembles the existing arrangement—but not before creating bad blood and encouraging Europe to view the U.S. as an unreliable ally. He has the capacity to tear down the global international order but lacks the plans or wherewithal to rebuild anything in its place.

DOGE found it relatively easy to dismantle USAID, but the administration hasn't created any new mechanism for extending soft power globally. Threatening tariffs on adversaries and allies alike proved simple enough, but the result has been economic weakening, damaged trade relationships, and a crumbling global trade system—without the promised manufacturing boom or factory jobs materializing on U.S. shores.

Unintended Consequences

Trump's aggressive immigration enforcement has produced an unexpected side effect: dramatic population slowdown. Census Bureau numbers released this week show U.S. population growth slowed significantly between June 2024 and July 2025, as deportations, voluntary departures, and deterred immigration took their toll.

Yet the right's hoped-for pronatalist policies to boost birth rates have amounted to little. Reduced population growth—or eventual population decline—threatens long-term economic expansion.

On healthcare, Trump no longer talks about fully repealing the Affordable Care Act. Instead, Republicans have adopted a strategy of slowly bleeding the program. The GOP-controlled Congress allowed subsidies to lapse at year's end, producing a significant drop in ACA enrollment. Despite offering "concepts of a plan" during the campaign and rolling out a "Great Healthcare Plan" this month, experts say Trump still lacks any real blueprint for improving health insurance.

Meanwhile, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appears more successful at undermining existing public health institutions than remaking them in his idiosyncratic image.

The Price of Ambition

Even the ballroom project illustrates this pattern. Trump first quoted $200 million, then $300 million by October, then $400 million by December. Anyone can guess the final bill if the ballroom is ever built, but with private funding, each cost jump creates new opportunities for donors to buy presidential influence.

Some Democrats have suggested any new president should immediately tear down Trump's ballroom. But if the project never moves forward, they won't need to. Perhaps they could leave the empty site as a fitting monument to this presidency.