Back in July, the Trump administration announced that the White House would undergo construction to make way for a new ballroom. While the construction has just recently begun, the White House has justified the plans to build the ballroom, by saying that “The White House State Ballroom will be a much-needed and exquisite addition of approximately 90,000 total square feet of ornately designed and carefully crafted space, with a seated capacity of 650 people — a significant increase from the 200-person seated capacity in the East Room of the White House.”

However, by all accounts, the fact that the construction has recently begun should not be a surprise to anyone, especially given the history behind how the White House has undergone changes over the years.

While it is fairly shocking to see the peoples’ house get torn down by all sorts of machines and construction workers, no one should be completely averse to the ideas that the construction presents.

Ultimately, the all-too-familiar and recognizable White House of the last few decades hasn’t always looked the way that it does today. In fact, while it’s fairly ironic to mention it given the fact that we’re talking about recent actions by a Republican president, the construction that’s recently begun is a signal to the nation that we’re in a progressive era.

A progressive era that is oddly reminiscent of another time of conservatism in America: the early 20th century.

To take a step back in time, former President Theodore Roosevelt once said, “a great democracy has got to be progressive, or it will soon cease to be either great or a democracy.”

While Roosevelt was a progressive conservative, he is known for more than speaking softly and carrying a big stick. In fact, Roosevelt was much like President Donald Trump in his approach to the White House. In 1902, he authorized a complete refurbishment of the grounds. Roosevelt had deemed that the building at that point was in a sorry condition, with outdated plumbing and was just generally deteriorating.

After Roosevelt got the ball rolling, former President William Howard Taft greenlit construction of the Oval Office. A few decades later, former President Harry S. Truman also refurbished the White House. It’s because of the construction that happened under his presidency that the White House is more resemblant of what we’re all familiar with today. Truman’s Presidential Library goes as far as to detail that his plans to revamp the White House were a result of how “a structural survey revealed major problems caused by stress from previous expansions,” and that “the whole building started to show alarming signs of collapsing.” First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis even had her own designs that updated the White House.

While mentioning just a handful of renovations and updates that the White House has undergone in the last century is unrelated to what’s happening today, it’s worthwhile to keep them in mind. After all, an argument certainly can be made that there is precedent for Trump to update the White House as he might see fit. But there are some problematic elements to this story.

One element can be found in how private donors are bankrolling the construction of the new ballroom. Donors that range from the tech field, like T-Mobile and Apple, to Caterpillar Inc., to somehow the Winklevoss twins. Yes, you read that correctly, the guys who were central to the 2010 movie about Facebook’s beginning, “The Social Network,” are helping to fund the new construction.

What’s even more problematic is that this story is as bizarre as it seems. From one point of view, Trump has opened his right flank by starting the demolition. A flank that has handed Lorne Michaels’ Saturday Night Live (SNL) fresh ammo on a silver platter to use against him.

Without being too much of a spoiler, it’s no surprise that SNL did actually end up using this story against Trump. In a pre-recorded sketch, the show came after Trump in an HGTV-esque take on the construction, making him out to be one of the picky guests that the show “Property Brothers” typically features in their episodes.

Pushing satire aside, there’s also another element that’s worthwhile to note. An element that speaks much for what some people in our nation are feeling while seeing photos of the East Wing come down.

Former President Bill Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea Clinton, wrote an opinion article in USA Today, where she recapped how the White House was once her home for a few years when her father was in office.

However, Clinton said something that is good to remember in a time when many Americans hold some distrust against the current administration: “[A]uthority is not the same as stewardship. Stewardship requires transparency, consultation and an accounting for history.”

While it doesn’t really matter if you support the construction and demolition, or if you’re feeling nostalgic and want the East Wing back because it better resembles the Lego White House that’s sitting in the corner of your room, Clinton points out something that the Trump administration has fumbled: the messaging.

If the Trump administration had branded the renovations as something better, maybe even tying it into this year’s earlier message of the golden age of America, maybe people would be more receptive. But that’s not the reality.

What is the reality is that the East Wing is gone, construction has started and the world keeps spinning. Nothing is going to bring the East Wing back.

However, what we can do is try to be excited about a new chapter, see what comes of it and then judge. Right now, we might be jumping the gun and pointing fingers. But we’re pointing fingers at a mound of dirt right now.

Michael Duke, GSB’26, is a business administration major from Scottsdale, Arizona.