Trump Demolishes the East Wing
Editor’s Note: Washington Week With The Atlantic is a partnership between NewsHour Productions, WETA, and The Atlantic airing every Friday on PBS stations nationwide. Check your local listings, watch full episodes here, or listen to the weekly podcast here.
The East Wing of the White House was demolished this week, making way for a new $300 million ballroom. Panelists joined Washington Week With The Atlantic to discuss what authority Donald Trump may have to dismantle the historic structure.
“There are a lot of memories that people have there,” Toluse Olorunnipa, a staff writer at The Atlantic, said last night. “Seeing it defaced and deconstructed in a matter of three days was really shocking to the conscience of a lot of people, especially people who have worked there.”
Olorunnipa also added that “for people who admire Washington, who admire the presidency, who admire the White House, it’s a sign that this president is not doing things the way previous presidents did. He’s doing it his own way, and he’s doing it in a way that really thumbs his nose at the idea that checks and balances actually work.”
Joining the editor in chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, to discuss this and more: Peter Baker, the chief White House correspondent at The New York Times; Susan Glasser, a staff writer at The New Yorker; David Ignatius, a foreign-affairs columnist at The Washington Post; and Toluse Olorunnipa, a staff Writer at The Atlantic.
Watch the full episode here.
