Demolition of a section of the East Wing of the White House, during construction on the new ballroom extension of the White House in Washington, on October 21, 2025. Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg/Getty Images

One of the nation’s premier historic preservation groups on Tuesday urged the Trump administration to pause demolition of the White House East Wing , which excavators began tearing into this week to make way for President Donald Trump’s planned ballroom .

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a Congressionally chartered non-profit tasked with preserving historic buildings, wrote in a letter to the National Park Service and two administration commissions that Trump’s proposed 90,000-square-foot addition would “overwhelm the White House itself — it is 55,000 square feet — a

See Full Page