Chelsea Clinton rebuked the Trump administration’s complete demolition of the White House’s East Wing in an op-ed published Thursday, calling it “a reflection of how easily history can be erased when power forgets purpose.”
In the op-ed published by USA Today, Clinton wrote President Trump “has the right … to pave over the Rose Garden (and denude it of roses) as well as turn the East Wing into a ballroom.”
She also noted Trump’s reported requests to change exhibits at Smithsonian Institution museums and national parks, saying “a disregard for history is a defining trait of President Trump’s second administration.”
“This is what happens when we take a wrecking ball to our heritage,” she wrote.
“Disregarding our democratic institutions and the rule of law or impounding funds that Congress has already approved grow from the same source of disregard for our founding ideals, and the norms and laws that have helped us move, over time, closer to a more perfect union, the cardinal call of our U.S. Constitution,” she continued.
Reflecting on her formative years in the White House while her father Bill Clinton was president, Chelsea Clinton said, “I never once thought, ‘this is my house’ in the way my friends thought of theirs.”
She remembered first lady Barbara Bush giving them a tour following Bill Clinton’s 1992 election win. Eight years later, “my family would welcome the Bush family back,” Chelsea Clinton wrote.
The White House is a “temporary home” changed by every president and his family, she continued. She named off those who made alterations to the executive mansion, including President Theodore Roosevelt’s introduction of the West Wing and President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s East Wing makeover that included a movie theater, offices and an underground bunker.
“[First lady Jacqueline] Kennedy famously redecorated the state rooms,” Chelsea Clinton wrote. “My mom [former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton] was the first first lady to bring contemporary art into the White House, a Georgia O’Keeffe.”
“First lady Michelle Obama added a vegetable garden (my mom had only planters full of tomatoes on the roof),” she continued. “And Mrs. Melania Trump, in her husband’s first term, renovated the Rose Garden, adding limestone paths and preserving the surrounding flowers.”
Donald Trump Jr. shared Chelsea Clinton’s post on the social media site X where she shared her op-ed. He clapped back at her critique of his father.
“Lol, your parents tried stealing furniture and silverware from the White House,” Donald Trump Jr. wrote. “And let’s not talk about the intern. Sit this one out.”
The demolition of the East Wing was completed on Thursday. President Trump plans to replace the space with a massive ballroom, estimated to cost $250 million and to be completed before the end of his term in 2029.
Since it began as a colonnade installation during Thomas Jefferson’s presidency, the East Wing was a source of controversy throughout its more than 200 year history. The opposing Federalist Party suggested that the colonnades reflected “aristocratic tendencies” from Jefferson, according to the White House Historical Association (WHHA).
In 1944, Republicans called the construction of an underground bunker and offices within the East Wing wasteful and accused FDR of using the White House makeover to improve his image, the WHHA said on its website.
“The secretive nature of the construction, tied to military purposes, further fueled suspicions,” the WHHA explained. “However, the East Wing’s utility in supporting the modern presidency eventually quieted critics.”
