The entire East Wing of the White House is being demolished to make way for President Trump's planned massive ballroom.

"In order to do it properly we had to take down the existing structure," Trump, flanked by renderings of the ballroom, told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday.

Trump's acknowledgement that the East Wing was being razed came after videos posted on social media this week showed a crane being used to begin tearing down the structure.

Shortly after the project was originally announced in July, the president said that the construction of the 90,000-square-foot ballroom wouldn't "interfere with the current building."

“It’ll be near it, but not touching it, and pays total respect to the existing building, which I’m the biggest fan of,” Trump said.

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