Trump demolishes White House East Wing; Nazi controversies hit both parties

Post Reports

The Washington Post

Daily News, Politics, News

4.4 • 5.1K Ratings

🗓️ 24 October 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, construction crews knocked down the East Wing of the White House to make way for the construction of a 90,000-square-foot ballroom. This demolition surprised many in D.C., as President Donald Trump had previously said his proposed addition would not significantly alter the existing structure.

Host Colby Itkowitz speaks with White House reporter Dan Diamond and Dan Merica, the co-anchor of the Early Brief newsletter, about why this construction is unlikely to be derailed and what we know about the ballroom plans. And, they discuss how past comments by Maine Senate hopeful Graham Platner and onetime Trump nominee Paul Ingrassia have come back to haunt them.

Today’s show was produced by Laura Benshoff and Josh Carroll. It was edited by Reena Flores and mixed by Sean Carter.

Subscribe to The Washington Post here.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The East Wing is gone. It's like a movie.
0:04.0	Pretty close.
0:04.9	It's crazy.
0:05.9	White House down.
0:07.9	It is cinematic.
0:10.5	Someone was making the point in the movies when the White House gets destroyed.
0:14.3	It's like, well, it's usually not the East Wing. It's like the main residence.
0:17.0	Either way, when the White House gets destroyed, it's like, you know, the bad thing in the movie.
0:20.7	It's the climax.
0:21.7	The bad guys did it.
0:22.7	It's usually not the president.
0:24.3	So.
0:29.4	From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Report's weekly politics roundtable.
0:34.4	I'm Cole Beerkowitz.
0:35.7	It's Friday, October 24th.
0:38.3	Today we'll be digging into the construction of President Trump's new White House ballroom.
0:42.3	And we'll be discussing some recent controversies, one that brought down a Trump nominee,
0:47.3	and another that is complicating the race for a Democrat in Maine.
0:52.3	I'm joined this week by White House reporter Dan Diamond.
0:55.6	And back at the table with me is Dan Marica.
0:58.0	He's the co-anchor of our politics newsletter, The Early Brief.
1:01.5	Guys, thanks so much for joining me.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Washington Post, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Washington Post and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.