The images are arresting. Where a portion of the stately East Wing of the White House once stood, there’s now a demolition site – complete with construction equipment and debris, the side of the building completely torn off.

In its place, if all goes according to plan, will arise the 90,000-square-foot, $250 million ballroom that President Donald Trump announced in July , a grand event space that will dwarf the existing 55,000-square-foot executive mansion.

To Washington denizens and tourists alike, it’s a shocking sight. President Trump, after all, had stated that the construction wouldn’t “interfere with the current building.” The new ballroom will be the biggest structural change to the White House since the renovation and expansion of the East Wing in 1942.

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