[Salon] White House says ballroom construction plans always 'subject to changes’

White House says ballroom construction plans always 'subject to changes’

Jake Horton
BBC Verify journalist

President Trump (c) showed off pictures during a meeting on Wednesday with Natio chief Mark Rutte (l) and Secretary of State Marco Rubio (r) of how the White House ballroom will look when completedImage source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Trump showed off pictures during a meeting on Wednesday of how the White House ballroom will look when completed

We’ve been bringing you updates today on the building of a new ballroom at the White House which has resulted in the demolition of the 103-year-old East Wing.

When discussing the plans previously US President Donald Trump said the project wouldn’t “interfere with the current building,” adding: “It will be near it but not touching it."

But new satellite images show the entire wing has been razed to the ground.

We asked the White House why this was - and an official told us the scope of the project has always been subject to changes.

The president presented the latest projections for the ballroom in the Oval Office on Wednesday. The graphic below shows the new ballroom will be a much bigger structure than the building it replaces.

Annotated aerial images showing the White House and East Wing before the latter was demolished (top) and a BBC graphic illustration of the new ballroom superimposed over the previous image

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