'Heartbreaking': Ronald Reagan’s daughter rips Trump for 'complete destruction' of White House

The White House underwent a major change when, in late October, its East Wing was demolished in order to make room for the ballroom that President Donald Trump is planning.

The East Wing, in its original form, was unveiled in 1902 under GOP President Teddy Roosevelt before being expanded and renovated under another Roosevelt — Democratic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt — 40 years later. Now, the East Wing is no more.

In an op-ed published by the New York Times on October 24, Patti Davis — the liberal daughter of the late Republican President Ronald Reagan — argues that Trump, by demolishing the East Wing, has done the United States a huge disservice.

"I first went into the White House when my father, Ronald Reagan, was inaugurated in January 1981," Davis, now 73, recalls. "It was afternoon, and I had been assigned an inaugural ball to attend later…. I visited the White House many more times over the next eight years, and though I could see well enough that it was a nice building, I was always counting the hours until I could leave. Then, my father left office, and it wasn't until many years later, after his death, that I returned to the White House."

Davis continues, "My family was in Washington for the memorial, and my brother, his wife and I were offered a tour to fill the long empty morning before the service. As soon as we entered the building, through the East Wing, I felt history fold itself around me. Everything had meaning — the feel of our footsteps on the marble floors, the thick hush amid constant activity. Our guide talked about how Franklin Roosevelt added to the East Wing in 1942, how Rosalynn Carter was the first first lady to have a formally dedicated office there. I walked through the White House as if I had never been there before because, in a way, I hadn't."

Trump, Davis laments, has destroyed a building that had considerable historic value.

"The images we've now all seen of the East Wing being demolished are heartbreaking," Reagan's daughter writes. "Over the centuries, many presidents have altered the White House, and certainly older buildings need to be updated and repaired. But this is complete destruction."

Davis adds, "Among certain jaded observers, there's been a strain of chatter dismissing the damage, saying the East Wing was never all that architecturally distinguished. But it was not just a building made of brick and plaster; it was the people's house, a building suffused with the spirit of the ideals that built it…. And now, the East Wing is gone. "

Patti Davis' full op-ed for The New York Times is available at this link (subscription required).