"When the president of the United States decides to demolish the East Wing of the White House to construct a ballroom, all that stucco and molding and wood has to go somewhere. So I tried to find it. I'd heard that the dirt from the East Wing demolition was being deposited three miles away, on a tree-lined island next to the Jefferson Memorial called East Potomac Park. So yesterday I drove around until I saw trucks and men in construction gear."
"The trucks would cut across the course to a cordoned-off site in the middle, where the grass had been torn away and replaced with piles of dirt. It did not look like much, but several employees at the site confirmed: This was not just any dirt. This was White House dirt. The precursor to the East Wing was constructed during Theodore Roosevelt's administration in 1902 and updated during Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration in the '40s."
"Other reporters have heard the same. But when I asked a different employee about it, he demurred; his boss drove by and said, 'No comment' before my colleague Grace Buono had even asked him a question. Donald Trump has reportedly been considering rebranding East Potomac Golf Links as the Washington National Golf Course and giving it a makeover. He even mocked up a new golden logo for it that's nearly identical to those of the courses he owns."
The president ordered demolition of the White House East Wing to construct a ballroom, producing stucco, molding, wood, and large amounts of dirt. Trucks transported the demolition soil about three miles to East Potomac Park, depositing it on a cordoned-off section of the East Potomac Golf Links where grass had been torn away. Several on-site employees identified the material as White House dirt, possibly dating to Roosevelt-era construction. One employee said the plan was to turn the deposited material into another golf hole. Reports also indicate consideration of a course rebranding and a redesigned, gold-themed logo.
Read at The Atlantic
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