What we know • Forbes Mexico

The Trump administration announced on Thursday that in September the construction of a 200 million dollars dance in the White House will begin that seems to be almost twice as large as the existing structure and add a space for events with capacity for 650 people.

Key data

The expansion, called the White House state dance hall, will have a total area of approximately 90,000 square feet, significantly larger than the 55,000 square feet that the White House currently has.

The representations show a huge building that rises in the place of the current east wing, which serves as offices for the first lady and its staff, and is connected to the main White House by a closed catwalk.

Trump and his donors have said that they will raise the necessary funds for the extension, which is expected to be finished “long before the end of President Trump’s mandate,” said the White House on Thursday.

The White House described the dance hall as a “very necessary and exquisite addition”, and the representations show a huge golden space with crafts, candlesticks and arched windows from floor to roof.

The dance hall will be separated from the main building of the White House, but its “theme and architectural heritage will be almost identical,” said the administration.

Key history

Trump has been talking about building a dance hall in the White House. During a campaign event in Ohio in 2016, he said he had offered to build a 100 million dollars dance hall during the Obama administration, but his offer never prospered. In February, by signing executive orders, Trump declared that he had offered to build a white house dance lounge similar to the one in his Mar-A-Lago farm during the presidency of Joe Biden, but that “he never received an answer.” He said that he would take care of the project and, in May, told NBC News that he would build a “first class dance hall”, something that “they have probably wanted a hundred years in the White House.” In June, he published in Truth Social that he would finance the construction of space and said that other presidents did not have the necessary experience to complete such a project. But I do it, as perhaps no one else, and will be built quickly and will be a wonderful addition, very consonance with the magnificent White House. These are the “fun” projects that I do while I think of the world economy, the United States, China, Russia and many other countries, places and events.

What we don’t know

What will happen to the current space of the East Wing? The current wing was added to the White House in 1942 and houses the office of the First Lady, the presidential theater, the entry of visitors and the east colonnade. Visitors who travel the White House enter the East entrance and follow the colonnade to see the rooms on the ground floor and the upper floor of the residence. The White House Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, indicated that the offices of the First Lady will be relocated during construction, but it is not clear if they will move permanently or if a space will be built for them within the new expansion. Nor did he specify whether the construction would affect the theater or the entry of visitors.

Tangent

According to reports, Trump has long questioned that the biggest events of the White House are often celebrated in tents in the southern garden. David Axelrod, the principal ex -assistant of former president Barack Obama, told NPR that Trump said: “You know, you have these condition and do them in these small tents” when he offered to build a new space. In 2016, talking about his desire to build a dance hall, he said that “having a tent is not so good.” Earlier this year, he said: “I think the tents no longer serve us, right?” The tents that are mounted for state events are large walled structures with soil and lighting. Obama organized several conditions of state in Tents and Joe Biden celebrated four of his six outdoor condition dinners, NPR reported.

Can Trump make important changes in the White House?

It is not clear, but probably. Generally, the presidents have been allowed to make aesthetic changes in residential areas, and receive a budget of $ 100,000 to redecorate, but no recent president has tried to change the magnitude of the Trump announced. The White House has been renewed and expanded above (a second floor was added in the 1930s and the east wing was built in 1942, for example), but the White House, as a building, was designated historical site in 1960. As a national heritage site/National Historical Monument under the care of the National Parks Service, “a wide regulations would regulate the attempts to implement any significant change”, according to the Historical Association of the White House. The Regulations Code of the National Registry of Historical Places establishes that the federal agencies that wish to initiate a project in a historical property must provide the Advisory Council on historical preservation for a reasonable opportunity to comment, but then “they will be able to adopt any course of action they consider appropriate”. The National Parks Service website also implies that the rule only applies when federal funds are used, and the Trump administration has said that it will collect private money for the project.