‘Morning Joe’ Hosts Shocked By Images Of White House Demolition

“Morning Joe” co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski blasted President Donald Trump for taking a “wrecking ball” to the White House to make way for a massive ballroom.

On Monday, a demolition crew started long-planned work to transform the East Wing of the building into a 90,000 square foot, $250 million event space.

Viral images of an excavator tearing into the historic façade and windows were shown on the flagship MSNBC morning show Tuesday, and neither host could quite believe their eyes. (Watch a clip at the end of the story.)

Scarborough noted how Trump “promised that he was not going to take a wrecking ball to the existing structure,” but in fact “has taken a wrecking ball to the existing structure.”

“It is hard to watch that,” Scarborough continued. “And it’s hard to believe that any president could destroy the White House and take a wrecking ball to an existing structure so historic.”

He added, “It would be one thing if you were building on, or you were doing things inside, but to take literally a wrecking ball to the White House … it’s grotesque. Just grotesque.”

Brzezinski chimed in to say the tableau she was witnessing was “painful.”

Scarborough then questioned what happens if a future president “wants to just knock down all the walls and turn it into a disco.”

“Congress can’t do anything?” he asked, questioning the broad powers afforded to the president to carry out White House renovations. “Seriously, you’re destroying one of the most historic structures on the planet.”

Brzezinski pointed out that the White House is “not your home that you purchased in Jersey,”

“No, it’s not yours, you rent it from the American people for four years,” Scarborough replied.

Constructed in 1902, the East Wing was last modified in 1942 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt when a second floor was added.

Trump acknowledged the construction in a social media post on Monday, contending that “every President has dreamt about” having a ballroom and the taxpayer would face “zero cost.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in July that the construction work would “pay total respect to the existing building,”

Meanwhile, the Treasury Department has instructed employees not to take photos of the White House while the work continues.

“As construction proceeds on the White House grounds, employees should refrain from taking and sharing photographs of the grounds, to include the East Wing, without prior approval from the Office of Public Affairs,” read an email to employees Tuesday, a copy of which was viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Demolishing the East Wing is the latest effort by Trump to remold the White House, and comes after gilding the Oval Office, paving the Rose Garden and adding two massive flag poles.

Trump has also announced that a UFC fight will take place on the White House lawn on the same day as his 80th birthday next year.