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Destruction is easier than construction. If Donald Trump’s decades as a real-estate developer didn’t teach him that, his time as president might.
In October, the administration bulldozed the East Wing of the White House in order to build a ballroom he wants to put on the site. Although Trump had promised over the summer that the project wouldn’t “interfere with the current building,” workers razed the entire structure, which was constructed in 1902 and expanded in 1942. Trump managed this the same way he has so much in his second term: He simply didn’t ask permission from any of the possible relevant authorities, including Congress, and acted so fast that no court could restrain him. In order to circumvent the legislature’s power of the purse, he sought donations from private corporations and individuals.
The demolition was hardly the most egregious action that Trump has taken as president, but it captured popular and media attention because it was such a clear metaphor: Trump had secretively demolished part of a building that belongs to the people of the United States, treating it as his own. That metaphor may become more potent yet. Recent events suggest that the gaping hole where the East Wing once was may lie there exposed, undeveloped, and contested for quite some time.
In a court hearing last week, Richard Leon, a federal judge appointed by George W. Bush, skewered the government lawyers representing the administration against a challenge to the ballroom, which would be as tall as the original executive mansion and have nearly double its footprint. Although a law enables the executive branch to conduct maintenance on the building without congressional authorization, Leon said it was not intended to cover $400 million projects. A Justice Department attorney suggested that Trump’s ballroom was similar to previous renovations, including a pool added decades ago, but Leon was not having it.
“The Gerald Ford swimming pool? You compare that to ripping down the East Wing and building a new East Wing? Come on,” he said.
Such reactions from a judge are not generally considered a favorable omen for a litigant. Leon has not issued a ruling yet, and whatever he concludes is likely to be appealed. But the hearing suggests the real possibility that Trump will be unable to construct anything in the East Wing’s place, leaving just an empty site and idled construction equipment.
Destruction followed by stagnation seems to be something of an MO, the likely outcome for some of Trump’s less tangible and visible changes to the federal government. Consider last week’s clash over Greenland. Trump threatened European and Canadian leaders with tariffs and unspecified future consequences, culminating in Trump settling for a tentative deal that appears to closely resemble the existing arrangement, but not before creating bad blood and encouraging Europe to think of the U.S. as not much of a friend. Trump has the capacity to tear down the global international order, but he has neither the plans nor the wherewithal to rebuild anything in its place.
Similarly, DOGE found it relatively easy to destroy USAID, but the administration hasn’t been able to create any new way of extending soft power around the globe. Leveling threats of tariffs on adversaries and allies alike has been relatively easy, but the result has been a weakening of the economy and American trade ties, and a crumbling of the old global-trade system. He has been unable to bring a huge boom of manufacturing jobs and factories to U.S. shores.
Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement has deported so many people, led so many people to leave the country, and discouraged so many people from coming that U.S. population growth slowed dramatically between June 2024, near the end of the Biden administration, and July 2025, according to numbers released this week by the Census Bureau. Yet the right’s hope for pronatalist policies that would try to drive up birth rates have amounted to little. Reduced population growth—or a sinking population, should it come to that—threatens economic growth.
Trump no longer talks about fully repealing the Affordable Care Act; he and Republicans have now adopted a strategy of slowly bleeding the program. The GOP-controlled Congress allowed subsidies to lapse at the end of 2025, helping produce a big drop in the number of people insured under the ACA. But despite offering “concepts of a plan” during the presidential campaign, and rolling out a “Great Healthcare Plan” this month, experts say Trump still hasn’t put together anything resembling a real blueprint for improving health insurance. Meanwhile, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. seems to be having much more luck undermining the existing institutions and practices of American public health than remaking the nation’s practices in his idiosyncratic image.
Even if these things are ultimately achieved, the difficulty and cost of doing so is likely to be much greater than Trump has promised to voters. The same is true of the ballroom project. The president first said it would cost $200 million. By October, the price tag had risen to $300 million. In December, the administration quoted a $400 million figure. Anyone can guess what the final bill might be if the ballroom is ever built, but given the private funding, each jump in the cost creates new opportunities for donors to buy influence from the president.
Some Democrats have said that any new president who replaces Trump should move promptly to tear down his ballroom. If the project never moves forward, though, they’ll have no need. Perhaps they could instead leave the empty site, a fitting monument to the Trump presidency.
Related:
Today’s News
- Two Border Patrol agents who fired their guns during Alex Pretti’s fatal shooting in Minneapolis have been placed on administrative leave, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
- President Trump warned Iran that it should negotiate a new nuclear deal or face possible U.S. military action, as an American aircraft carrier and additional warships arrived in the Middle East. Iran responded that it is open to talks but threatened to defend itself forcefully if provoked.
- Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar was sprayed with an unknown substance at a Minneapolis town-hall meeting last night. The suspect was arrested and is in jail on suspicion of third-degree assault.
Evening Read
What Should Americans Do Now?
By George Packer
The killings in Minneapolis of Renee Good and Alex Pretti have been compared to the murder of George Floyd, because they all happened within a few miles of one another, and because of the outrage they inspired. There’s an important difference, though: In 2020 the United States was in turmoil, but it was still a state of law. Floyd’s death was followed by investigation, trial, and verdict—by justice. The Minneapolis Police Department was held accountable and ultimately made to reform.
No one should expect justice for Good and Pretti. Today, nothing stands in the way of the brutal tactics of ICE and the Border Patrol. While President Trump seems to be trying to defuse the mayhem he’s caused by reassigning a top commander, he is not withdrawing the federal agents from the state or allowing local authorities to investigate, let alone prosecute, them for their actions.
More From The Atlantic
Culture Break
Conspire. When the 49ers lost in the playoffs, some fans embraced a theory about electromagnetic waves instead of facing reality, Kaitlyn Tiffany writes.
Explore. Can we just let teens exist in public? When malls ban unaccompanied minors and when cities enact curfews, they restrict adolescents’ ability to participate in society, Julie Beck writes.
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Rafaela Jinich contributed to this newsletter.
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