Jimmy Carter’s grandson ‘devastated’ over East Wing’s demolition

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - One of the grandsons of the late President Jimmy Carter said he was “devastated” to learn of the demolition of the East Wing of the White House.

“It was really upsetting,” Josh Carter said, recalling a time when his grandmother, former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, worked out of the historic wing. “The history that happened in that section was unbelievable.”

Carter made his comments Thursday during a ceremony marking the honorary naming of the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech. Before becoming Georgia’s 76th governor and later the 39th president of the United States, Jimmy Carter attended Georgia Tech in 1942.

Construction began last month on the $300 million ballroom that President Donald Trump is adding to the White House, with construction crews tearing down the facade of the East Wing, where the new space is being built.

“The entrance for guests at the White House was through the East Wing,” Josh Carter said. “My grandfather welcomed the Pope there. Seeing that history destroyed with no comment or context was shocking.”

Among the almost 40 people and organizations who are footing the bill for Trump’s $300 million ballroom addition are two Atlantans, one of whom serves in the 47th U.S. president’s cabinet.

Kelly Loeffler is the administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration. Her husband, Jeff Sprecher, is the founder and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), an American multinational financial services company that operates global financial exchanges and clearing houses. Sprecher founded ICE in 2000.

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The 90,000-square-foot ballroom will dwarf the main White House itself, at nearly double the size, and Trump said it will accommodate 999 people.

Trump said the White House needs a large entertaining space and has complained that the East Room, the current largest space in the White House, is too small, holding about 200 people. He has frowned on the past practice of presidents hosting state dinners and other large events in tents on the South Lawn.

The East Wing is traditionally the social side of the White House and sits across East Executive Avenue from the Treasury Department. It’s where tourists and other guests enter for events.

The president and his chief spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, said over the summer that the White House itself would remain intact as the ballroom was going up.

The White House said some demolition was needed because the East Wing, the traditional home for the first lady and her staff, is being modernized as part of the ballroom project.

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