President Donald Trump showed off a bust of former President Abraham Lincoln during a walk-through of the White House with his granddaughter, Kai.
The sculpture, now installed in the West Wing colonnade, had previously been housed in the White House’s 123-year-old East Wing.
It means that part of the historic wing, which was demolished as part of renovations that include the construction of a new ballroom, lives on despite the widely criticised makeover efforts.
In a video titled ‘Christmas at the White House’ released on Saturday, the president tells Kai, 18: “I got this from the East Wing/ This came out of the East Wing, the famous East Wing. This looks good, doesn’t it, here? The same man that did the Mount Rushmore.”
Trump, 79, has said he intends to leave a lasting architectural legacy in Washington, pushing through changes to the White House complex that extend beyond the routine upgrades typically carried out by recent presidents.
In the video, Kai spots a golden sign reading ‘The Oval Office’ and comments, “The gold looks nice.” Trump responds, “Very nice”.
Although the historic East Wing has been removed, Trump has pointed to the Lincoln bust as one element preserved from the former structure and incorporated into his reconfigured White House.
However, Trump admitted he did not need to tear down the East Wing of the White House to build his sprawling $300 million ballroom.
“I could’ve built the ballroom around it,” Trump told Fox News. “I didn’t want to sacrifice a great ballroom for an okay ballroom by leaving it right smack in the middle.”
The East Wing was added to the White House in 1942 and has served as office space for the first lady and her staff. It also included a visitor’s entrance and the president’s theater.
In late October, the entire complex was demolished in a matter of days, sparking pushback from Democrats, who argued the president did not go through the proper approval process before radically altering the historic building.
When Trump first announced his ballroom plans in August, he pledged that the “existing building” would not be touched. But, after further review, the White House concluded that demolishing the East Wing was more cost-effective and structurally sound than constructing an addition, according to The New York Times.
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