Tourists gawk and recoil at Trump's destruction of the White House East Wing

With many Washington tourist spots closed due to the US government shutdown, some visitors instead are checking out an unexpected and divisive new attraction in the nation's capital: President Donald Trump's surprise demolition of the White House's East Wing.

Tours of the White House are out of the question, not least because the visitor entrance, which happened to be in the East Wing, is now a closed-off rubble-strewn demolition site, where Trump's vision for a grand golden 90,000-square-foot ballroom will soon take shape.

Groups of school students and couples on vacation still gazed through the railings this week at the US National Historic Landmark that has served as the president's residence since 1800. But the view of the East Wing, expanded in 1942, is blocked by high barricades. Only the tops of two giant extractors peek above the fencing in clouds of dust and din, horrifying preservationists, Democratic lawmakers and at least a few American tourists.

Some tourists lofted iPhones high above their heads, trying fruitlessly for a clear shot of whatever had just happened to what was the East Wing, which had traditionally housed the offices and staff of the president's spouse. Trump, a Republican who likes to cite his architectural acumen acquired as a former real-estate mogul in New York City, says they aren't missing much and no one should mourn its demise.

"It was a very small building," Trump told reporters this week, already using the past tense after his earlier pledge that his changes to the existing White House complex would not be so drastic. "There was a story added on, which was not particularly nice."

Some conservatives have defended Trump and his efforts to modernise what they say is an old and perennially too-small building. 

Democratic lawmakers have said Trump's changes have not gone through the proper channels and criticised the funding. The price tag, now some $300 million, is being covered by private donors, including some US technology companies such as Google and an unspecified fraction by Trump himself.

Trump's staff say the president does not need permission for the demolition and that the construction plans would soon be sent on to the National Capital Planning Commission, an agency currently chaired by Trump's White House staff secretary.

The ballroom is needed, Trump says, because there is not enough space for state visits and other grand events. For years, presidents have put up a big temporary pavilion on a lawn, which Trump views as downmarket.

Some of Trump's predecessors faced similar opposition at the time to major construction projects at what is sometimes called "The People's House": Andrew Jackson's costly addition of the North Portico in 1830; Theodore Roosevelt's demolition of conservatories to add the West Wing in 1902; Harry Truman adding what would become the Truman balcony in the 1950s.

Trump believes posterity and future tourists will see his ballroom no differently: "It goes beautifully with the White House."

A few tourists said they had no idea that the most drastic changes to the White House in decades were unfolding before them until they quizzed passersby. A handful of people showed up to protest, including one woman in a unicorn costume.

Others had strong views, most of them disapproving of the project.