When Chelsea Clinton lived in the White House as a 90s tween, she knew it was the “People’s House.”
Now, the 45-year-old daughter of former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is "unsettled" by President Donald Trump tearing down the historic building's East Wing to make way for a $300,000 ballroom.
In a USA TODAY op-ed, Clinton concedes that past presidents and first ladies have made changes to the White House that “added elements for efficiency, for comfort, for aesthetics.” But she said there is no evidence that the president consulted with experts to preserve the history and integrity of the building.
“With less than a year until we celebrate our country’s 250th anniversary, it is unsettling that such substantial alterations to the 225-year-old People’s House are being undertaken without a historic-preservation review and seemingly without the involvement of any historians, and I would love to be proven wrong here,” Clinton writes.
The East Wing traditionally houses the first lady’s offices. When Hillary Clinton had an office there, she worked to increase funding for research and treatment of cancer, AIDS, osteoporosis, and juvenile diabetes and chaired the Task Force on National Health Care Reform. That entire wing, where former first ladies Eleanor Roosevelt and Laura Bush worked too, was demolished this week – in a reversal of earlier renovation plans.
