Reflections | How Trump’s new White House ballroom echoes the grand monuments of China’s emperors
Many monuments built by the emperors of old were architectural marvels and stunning spectacles of power, but perilous in consequence
In October 2025, United States President Donald Trump initiated the demolition of the East Wing of the White House to make way for a grand new ballroom, making it the largest alteration to the presidential complex in decades.
The demolition has provoked fierce controversy.
Preservationists, historians and members of Congress condemned the move as an act of vandalism against a national landmark. The National Trust for Historic Preservation warned that the new structure would “overwhelm” the historic core of the White House, while critics accused Trump of bypassing required planning and review procedures.
Supporters, however, praised the project as a privately funded modernisation that would leave an enduring architectural legacy.
Trump’s architectural adventure fits neatly into a long lineage of rulers bewitched by spectacle. No present-day politician has so instinctively grasped the power of showmanship – the choreographed signing ceremonies, the gilded interiors, the capitalised superlatives.