This week, many watched in surprise and horror as President Donald Trump ordered the White House’s East Wing — a 55,000-square-foot executive mansion nicknamed “The People’s House” — to be reduced to rubble in a matter of days.
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The demolition, which Trump initially promised wouldn’t touch the East Wing, makes way for a proposed 90,000-square-foot ballroom expected to cost about $300 million.
Of course, there are the troubling optics of starting this project amid increasing economic uncertainty and an ongoing government shutdown that could result in the disruption of SNAP benefits by early November. But what if Trump’s plans for the ballroom mean disrupting the Constitution as we know it? The implications are graver than you might’ve considered before.
Trump’s supporters, including Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), dismiss the “big, beautiful” renovation as far from the first in the White House’s 233-year history. “President Trump’s going to have the greatest improvement of the White House in the history of the building,” Johnson said, according to msn.com.
But while the White House promises that construction will be completed by the end of Trump’s term in January 2029, it begs the question: Who starts a renovation on their home only to move out?
The timing of the East Wing demolition ominously overlaps with former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon’s recent interview with The Economist, in which he claimed that Trump plans to remain in the White House and run for president in 2028, despite the 22nd Amendment’s two-term limit.
Trump hasn’t said that he intends to “run” for an unconstitutional third term — even insisting that he wouldn’t last May. But if Bannon just revealed the hand of his on-again, off-again bestie, then it tracks with the renovations.
Even if Trump didn’t intend to run again, the demolition of significant parts of the White House is controversial, especially among his opponents. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) likened the demolition to destroying the Constitution.
Since Trump has already taken actions drawn from the Project 2025 playbook that many thought were implausible or illegal, it’s not far-fetched to believe Bannon’s claim that Trump is actively reinterpreting the 22nd Amendment. His end goal may be to make “The People’s House” the “The Trump House,” but only time will tell.
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