WASHINGTON >> With many Washington tourist spots closed due to the U.S. government shutdown, some visitors instead are checking out an unexpected and divisive new attraction in the nation’s capital: President Donald Trump’s surprise demolition of the White House’s East Wing.

Tours of the White House are out of the question, not least because the visitor entrance, which happened to be in the East Wing, is now a closed-off rubble-strewn demolition site, where Trump’s vision for a grand golden 90,000-square-foot ballroom will soon take shape.

Groups of school students and couples on vacation still gazed through the railings this week at the U.S. National Historic Landmark that has served as the president’s residence since 1800. But the view of the East Wing, expanded in 1942, is blocked by

See Full Page