Chelsea Clinton grew up in White House. She's 'unsettled' by Trump renovations.
When Chelsea Clinton lived in the White House as a 90s tween, she knew it was the “People’s House.”
Now, the 45-year-old daughter of former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is "unsettled" by President Donald Trump tearing down the historic building's East Wing to make way for a $300 million ballroom.
In a USA TODAY op-ed, Clinton concedes that past presidents and first ladies have made changes to the White House that “added elements for efficiency, for comfort, for aesthetics.” But she said there is no evidence that the president consulted with experts to preserve the history and integrity of the building.
“With less than a year until we celebrate our country’s 250th anniversary, 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, and I would love to be proven wrong here,” Clinton writes.
The East Wing traditionally houses the first lady’s offices. When Hillary Clinton had an office there, she worked to increase funding for research and treatment of cancer, AIDS, osteoporosis, and juvenile diabetes and chaired the Task Force on National Health Care Reform. That entire wing, where former first ladies Eleanor Roosevelt and Laura Bush worked too, was demolished this week – in a reversal of earlier renovation plans.
The White House first released the plans for the 90,000-square-foot ballroom on July 31. Trump at the time told reporters that the addition would be “built over on the east side, and it will be beautiful.”
The new construction follows a drastic renovation of the White House’s Rose Garden, which prompted backlash and elicited comparisons to the president’s ritzy Florida property, Mar-a-Lago. Earlier this summer, the center section of the Rose Garden, which was covered with grass, was replaced with stone tiles and picnic tables with umbrellas.
“Given the widespread public rebuke to the cementification of the Rose Garden and its apparent recapitulation as ‘The Rose Garden Club at the White House’ and the outrage at the demolition of the East Wing, I am clearly not alone in feeling unsettled,” Clinton writes.
Clinton, in her op-ed, says that while Trump has the “authority” over the White House grounds, it always requires “stewardship.” Stewardship, she writes, “requires transparency, consultation, and an accounting for history.”
“What’s being dismantled today isn’t just marble or plaster; it is a reflection of how easily history can be erased when power forgets purpose.”
Contributing: Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy, Joey Garrison, and Fernando Cervantes Jr., USA TODAY
(This story was updated because an earlier version included an inaccuracy.)
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Chelsea Clinton is 'unsettled' by Trump's White House renovation