WASHINGTON — The East Wing that President Donald Trump tore down last month stood for decades.
The ballroom he’s building in its place could be gone not long after the first wave of guests sit down for dinner, depending on the outcome of the 2028 presidential race.
If elected, a Democratic president would have plenty to worry about aside from White House decor; war and peace can easily fill up a day. But a new president may face considerable pressure from within the Democratic fold to do something about a massive new ballroom forever linked to Trump.
Already, prominent Democratic officials are workshopping ideas for repurposing the space in favor of something that’s decidedly un-Trump. If any of these come to fruition, the $300 million ballroom that Trump birthed could take on a function that he never intended.
Should the ballroom be used as the president plans? “No way,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., who said he will consider a presidential bid if Democrats gain control of the House in the upcoming midterm elections.
“This is a space that’s owned by the people and that serves the people,” Raskin said in an interview. “So, it should be used opposite of what Trump has in mind, which is for the American aristocracy and plutocracy to gather.”
Rep. Ro Khanna of California, another Democrat viewed as a possible presidential candidate, said the ballroom should be used in a way that “celebrates and empowers forgotten Americans” as opposed to accommodating guests for glitzy state dinners.
Letting the 90,000-square-foot structure remain a ballroom would only validate the means by which Trump built it: demolishing the East Wing without forewarning and bankrolling the project with private donations, Democratic officials suggested.
At least one Democratic lawmaker wants the ballroom to meet its demise.
“I don't think it would be a bad idea to tear it down,” said Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn.
“It’s this gigantic blob there that’s Donald Trump,” he added.
The White House declined to comment on the ballroom’s fate under future Democratic presidents.
Trump has said that a ballroom will enable successors to hold large events in a convenient indoor space as opposed to herding guests onto the South Lawn under makeshift tents. For 150 years, presidents have wanted just this kind of solution, the White House contends.
“I hope it remains a ballroom and hope that it’s tastefully and beautifully done so that future presidents will be proud to host honored guests there,” said Anita McBride, a member of the White House Historical Association board of directors and former chief of staff to first lady Laura Bush.
“But what I mostly hope is that the new building includes offices for the Office of the First Lady, White House social office and White House Visitor Office,” McBride added. “Those offices serve the presidency in a unique and special way, welcoming all visitors to the People’s House.”
Past presidents also faced public backlash for transforming the White House. Harry Truman was ridiculed for putting up a balcony that overlooks the South Lawn. A newspaper cartoon in 1948 depicted Truman standing on the balcony named for him and shouting, “Love me... love my balcony.”
But no president has undertaken any exterior renovation on the ballroom’s scale, nor have many presidents proved as polarizing as Trump.
That makes the ballroom an inviting target for Democratic candidates and officeholders alike. There’s little downside. A Washington Post-Ipsos poll of adults last month showed that 88% of Democrats and 61% of independents opposed the ballroom project.
“It’s a metaphor for this administration — the recklessness to which he goes about things, the fact that he doesn’t believe in rules, he doesn't believe they apply to him,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom, another potential Democratic candidate for president, said in an interview last month with NBC News “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker.
“So, you know, he’s a wrecking ball presidency,” Newsom said.
Inertia is a potent force in life and in politics. A Democratic president with a mountain of promises to fulfill might conclude the easiest answer is to leave the ballroom alone, rather than spend time and money mothballing it.
Newsom is no friend of Trump, but his office did not respond to a question about whether he’d like to see the ballroom razed.
One Democratic candidate for Congress, Saikat Chakrabarti, suggested turning the ballroom into a Smithsonian-run museum. If elected, he said he will introduce a bill aimed at converting the ballroom into a museum focused on “corruption and autocracy.”
The space would list the private companies that donated to the ballroom, said Chakrabarti, who is running for the San Francisco seat held by outgoing Rep. Nancy Pelosi, to “really put into the sunlight how this thing came to even be.” (Major companies that have contributed to Trump’s ballroom project include Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Comcast Corp., the parent company of NBCUniversal, while the White House has said it is accepting other, anonymous donations.)
On the campaign trail, Democratic candidates figure to propose creative alternatives for the ballroom. Raskin envisions a hybrid structure that could accommodate some dinner guests, but would also showcase exhibits devoted to America’s struggle to achieve full-fledged democracy.
One side of the space would display the various attempts to “undermine and thwart popular democracy in American life,” starting with King George III during the Revolutionary War era and ending with Trump’s attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Raskin said.
He said he would name the space the “Democracy Matters Ballroom.”
Khanna said the ballroom’s future should be decided by way of vox populi.
“We need a White House that is not for the tech billionaires, but for forgotten Americans,” he said.
“In that spirit, we should ask Americans — in rural communities, urban centers and hollowed-out factory towns — for their ideas of what to do with the space,” Khanna said.
A Republican successor to Trump might be more apt to keep the ballroom, interpreting victory as a vindication of Trump’s policies and priorities.
Then again, Trump’s tastes aren’t for everyone. He likes gold; he’s partial to grand, formal spaces. A GOP president with a different aesthetic might not be quite as besotted with a ballroom nearly twice the size of the White House proper.
“The White House is a residence that symbolizes American democracy,” said Edward Lengel, former chief historian for the White House Historical Association.
The ballroom, he said, makes the White House resemble something else: “a palace.”
