Former first lady Michelle Obama once again weighed in on the demolition of East Wing of the White House and her reaction when she saw the viral photos of it.
Obama, 61, should be familiar with the East Wing as the office of the first lady and her staff was located in that section of the White House. But in October, work crews started the demolition of the East Wing to make way for the construction of a $300 million ballroom that was sanctioned by President Trump.
Obama touched on the demolition during a Tuesday interview on The Jamie Kern Lima Show podcast when she was asked how it personally felt for her and her body when she saw it, The Hill reported.
“It’s not about me. It’s about us and our traditions and what they stand for,” the former first lady said. “I think in my body, I felt confusion because I’m like, well, what — who are we? What do we value? And who decides that?”
Obama also said “that’s the thing that’s going through my head a lot lately.”
Obama said she’s been pondering on our society and “rules,” revealing that she’s “confused by what are our norms and our mores — not the laws — but how do we live together?”
“That’s the part of it that hurts. It’s not the house,” she added. “I think I felt a loss for us as a nation, but personally, you know, that was not our — that’s not our house. That’s the people’s house.”
During a previous appearance on CBS’s The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, the former first lady shared those same sentiments, saying that she wanted to “remind people” that the “house is not our house.”
“We never viewed it as our house. We were there for a time. We had a job to do,” Obama emphasized. “We always felt it was the people’s house.”
Trump, 79, said he was going to use private donations to facilitate the construction of the 90,000-square-foot ballroom. And though he also initially said that a portion of the East Wing was going to be saved from the demolition, he later stated that the entire building needed to be torn down in order to “properly” execute the project, The Hill reported.
Trump has also faced backlash for his actions. But during an on-camera tour of the supposed facelift happening at the East Wing, he told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham that his “greatest strength” is constructing ballrooms.
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