CNN’s Manu Raju thought he had Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) cornered during an interview when he attempted to cast President Trump’s proposed White House renovation as an act of “uprooting” an “iconic building.”
But Hawley wasn’t having it.
When Raju asked, “What about just uprooting the—you know—this is an iconic building?”
Hawley immediately turned the tables on the network’s narrative, exposing the hypocrisy of the Left’s sudden obsession with “preserving history.”
“Manu, I will just say this,” Hawley began. “I made this point yesterday, that I hear all of a sudden from my liberal friends that they’re very concerned about our history.”
“Really? These are the same people who tore down every statue they could get their hands on in the last four years—Christopher Columbus, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt. They didn’t have any concern for history then. Now all of a sudden, they’re like, ‘oh, the façade of the East Wing is iconic.’ Oh, give me a break! I mean, give me a break.”
Senator Josh Hawley dismantles CNN’s narrative about President Trump’s White House renovation during a live interview.
When reporter Manu Raju asked: “What about just uprooting the—you know—this is an iconic building?”@HawleyMO exposed their faux outrage instantly:
“Manu, I… pic.twitter.com/FR9oKdUV2w
— Overton (@overton_news) October 22, 2025
On July 31, 2025, the White House issued a statement announcing they would build a ~90,000-square-foot ballroom in or adjacent to the East Wing of the White House.
The ballroom is described as being able to seat about 650 people (as of initial numbers) — a considerable increase over the existing venue space (the East Room seats around 200).
The announcement says the East Wing (constructed ~1902 with major modifications 1942) will be “modernized”. The new ballroom will be designed in a style consistent with the White House’s classical architecture.
The plan says the project will be privately funded (by Trump and “patriot donors”) rather than relying on taxpayer dollars.
