Trump Bulldozes Away a Century’s Worth of Women’s Contributions to the White House

According to East Wing Magazine, former First Lady Betty Ford once said, “If the West Wing is the mind of the nation, then the East Wing is the heart.” Alas… Trump has neither. 

On Tuesday, the president started demolishing the White House East Wing to make room for his stupid $200 million ballroom (the price tag of which has ballooned to $350 million). In July, when the Trump administration first announced the ballroom, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt promised that “Nothing will be torn down.” Well, promise not kept, because in addition to interfering with the structure of the historical building, Trump bulldozed away a century’s worth of women-led achievements.

The East Wing has been an official home to the First Lady’s policy efforts since Eleanor Roosevelt was in the White House from 1933 to 1945, and it’s where countless first ladies have since displayed their groundbreaking efforts to improve women’s lives in the U.S. It’s where Michelle Obama kicked off her Fight Against Obesity campaign, where “Lady Bird” Johnson pushed for an actual policy change to control advertising on highways, and where Betty Ford, Rosalynn Carter and their staff lobbied for the Equal Rights Amendment. “It’s sad so much history was demolished in just a few days,” Lisa Burns, a media studies professor at Quinnipiac University, told Jezebel.

After the East Wing was built under Theodore Roosevelt in 1902, Eleanor hosted official functions and news conferences throughout the 1930s. Three decades later, Jacqueline Kennedy renovated the East Garden; in the 1970s Betty Ford set the groundwork for an actual office; and in 1977, Rosalynn Carter established the Office of the First Lady on the wing’s second floor. But speaking to the press in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump pretty much gave the wing—and the women who’ve made it important—the middle finger. “It was never thought of as being much,” he said. “It was a very small building.” Melania has not given any comment.

Katherine Jellison, a women’s studies scholar at Ohio University, told Jezebel her heart sank when she saw the demolitions on television. “The norm-breaking nature of the current administration makes it so that I’m not really shocked by anything it does anymore, but I was saddened and worried about the integrity—historical integrity—of the White House.” She continued, “It’s sort of like, my worst fears realized, to be frank.”

Aside from the move being an act of cultural terrorism, even worse is that it’s being destroyed to make room for Trump’s Mar-a-Lago duplicate ballroom—inspired by the Palace of Versailles (because that worked out great for the French). The ballroom is projected to be 90,000 square feet, and bigger than the White House itself. And we’ll be stuck with it for years to come.

On Thursday, satellite imagery revealed Trump also tore up Jackie Kennedy’s East Garden—just months after he paved over her Rose Garden. And probably not by coincidence, either. Jellison explains that Jackie was known for her active efforts to restore the historical integrity of the White House, and even “[attempted] to put in place safeguards so something like this wouldn’t happen, and that experts would be consulted before any major change like this occurred.”

“So many critics are seeing this as a rebuke of something that Miss Kennedy was universally praised for—regardless of party affiliation,” she said. On Instagram, Jack Schlossberg openly criticized the president, saying that where his grandmother planted flowers, Trump is pouring concrete.