Michael LaRosa, who served as former first lady Jill Biden’s press secretary, said Friday the demolition of the White House’s East Wing was “probably needed.”
“It’s sad. I had a really wonderful office that I squatted in an hour or two after the inauguration ended, and remained there for nearly two years,” LaRosa said during an appearance on “The Sunrise on The Hill.”
“It’s heartbreaking, and I’m sentimental about it and sad,” LaRosa said. “At the same time, I think every first family, every president, should play a role in evolving the White House and updating it and modernizing it and sometimes expanding it.”
“I don’t think there’s any question that a ballroom is probably needed,” LaRosa continued. “But I understand the sadness around the East Wing because I feel it myself.”
LaRosa noted former President Harry S. Truman made extensive changes to the White House’s interior while former President Franklin Roosevelt added the West Wing.
He said presidents and first ladies are afforded the opportunity to make changes to the White House how they see fit.
The $300 million, 90,000-square-foot ballroom is being built adjacent to what used to be the White House’s East Wing.
The entire East Wing was demolished Thursday in preparation for construction.
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that keeping the East Wing as is would have “hurt a very, very expensive, beautiful building,” referring to the ballroom that he said presidents have wanted for years.
He said he “and some friends of mine” will pay for the ballroom at no cost to taxpayers.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt attributed the demolition and higher building cost to changes that happen with any construction.
“The plans changed when the president heard counsel from the architects and the construction companies who said that in order for this East Wing to be modern and beautiful for many, many years to come, for it to be a truly strong and stable structure, this phase one that we’re now in was necessary and the president wants to do right by the ‘People’s House,'” Leavitt said at her press briefing Thursday.
Trump said later Thursday that about $350 million had been raised for the project, but he remained vague about his personal contribution.
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