Chelsea Clinton is blasting President Donald Trump’s renovation of the White House East Wing, accusing him of “erasing history” and turning the People’s House into a monument to himself — but her critics say the former first daughter’s outrage rings hollow.
In a USA Today op-ed Thursday titled “Trump is Wrecking the People’s House,” Clinton condemned Trump’s plan to replace part of the East Wing with a 90,000-square-foot ballroom, a privately funded project estimated at up to $250 million.
“What was dismantled today isn’t just marble or plaster,” she wrote. “It is a reflection of how easily history can be erased when power forgets purpose.”
Clinton, who spent eight years living in the White House during her father Bill Clinton’s presidency, framed her argument as a defense of history and civic stewardship.
“Although I spent many of my formative years living in the White House, I always knew it wasn’t my house,” she wrote.
“It was my home, absolutely, but not my house. The White House belongs to the American people.”
She compared Trump unfavorably with past presidents who renovated the mansion — from Theodore Roosevelt’s West Wing addition to Jacqueline Kennedy’s historic restoration.
“When Mrs. Kennedy restored and renovated the White House, she did so with historians, landscape architects and preservation experts,” Clinton said.
“It is unsettling that such substantial alterations to the 225-year-old People’s House are being undertaken without a historic-preservation review and seemingly without the involvement of any historians.”
Trump aides have said the ballroom, now under active construction after demolition began this month, will not “interfere with the building’s original design” and will be completed in time for the nation’s 250th anniversary next year.
Plans call for a gold-trimmed hall capable of seating about 650 guests, fitted with bulletproof windows and advanced broadcast technology.
But Clinton painted the project as part of a broader pattern of “disregard for history” in Trump’s second term.
She accused the administration of censoring museum exhibits, scrubbing federal websites of references to women’s and LGBTQ history, and “taking a wrecking ball to our heritage.”
“Our greatness doesn’t come because we ignore our history,” she wrote, “it comes because we acknowledge it, we learn from it and build a better future on it.”
Critics on social media accused Clinton of politicizing a fairly routine renovation.
"You might want to sit this one out, Chelsea," one X user wrote. "Your dad had sex in the Oval and your mom ripped off the furniture and fine china when she left."
Another X user wrote, "You should really rethink this post. Your parents did renovations all over the White House and used private funds to do so. The history of presidents leaving their make on the White House is long and available online in the public archives. Please stop treating the American people like we are dumb."
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