A historian who has written about former ladies and the White House said that kicking first lady Melania Trump and her staff out of the East Wing to build a ballroom "sends a message" and has a "jarring" impact on Americans watching the destruction.
Kate Andersen Brower, author of "Exploring the White House," told CNN anchor Dana Bash during a panel discussion Thursday about how the East Wing is where the first lady's office has been located, and the demolition has knocked down the public entrance of the building.
"I think that it's jarring for to people to see the demolition take place like this, especially when we were told that it wouldn't happen quite this way, that the entire East Wing wouldn't be knocked down," Andersen Brower said. "And if you just think of the history there, I mean, Martin Luther King visiting Johnson during the Civil Rights Bill, FDR handling World War II. I mean, anybody who's worked in the White House knows that you're standing in this hallowed ground, and it was never meant to be a palace, and I think that's something that is especially concerning about this is just the size of it. I mean, almost two football fields long. It's really unusual."
She added that the White House was meant to be modest and "the People's House."
"Not having the first lady and her aides in the White House itself sends a message about what that role has become," Andersen Brower explained.
First lady Rosalynn Carter was the first to have an office in the White House.
Melania Trump has not commented on the destruction and apparently has spent little time in the office, CNN reports.
Over the years, complaints have been common that the East Wing space was too small to serve large numbers of people during social events.
"It's gonna look a little strange," Andersen Brower added. "And we have to remember when George Washington decided to have Washington be the capital and to build the White House here, the idea was always that it was going to be modest. It was not going to be a palace. This is going to look out of out of synch with the rest of the House... it just will look odd, I think."