Americans largely oppose Trump tearing down White House East Wing to make way for his ballroom: Poll
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(WASHINGTON) — Most Americans oppose the demolition of the White House’s East Wing to make way for President Donald Trump’s ballroom, according to an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll conducted using Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel.
A 56% majority of Americans oppose the Trump administration tearing down the East Wing of the White House as part of the construction of a 90,000-square-foot ballroom paid for by $300 million in private donations, including 45% who “strongly” oppose it, the poll finds.
Just 28% of Americans support it, with 15% strongly supporting the East Wing being torn down for a ballroom, the poll found. Another 16% say they are not sure.
Support breaks down by party lines, with a 62% majority of Republicans in support and 88% of Democrats opposed. A 61% majority of independents oppose the East Wing tear town and ballroom, with nearly half opposing it strongly, according to the poll.
Opinions are much stronger among Democrats: 78% of Democrats strongly oppose the teardown and ballroom, a much smaller 35% of Republicans strongly support it.
A majority of liberals (76%) and about half of moderates (51%) strongly oppose the East Wing teardown and ballroom, while just about a third of conservatives (34%) support it strongly.
Strong support peaks among strong Trump approvers, with 58% saying they strongly support the teardown of the East Wing and ballroom. Among those who somewhat approve of Trump, just 11% strongly support the plan.
Among strong Trump disapprovers, 82% strongly oppose tearing down the East Wing and building a ballroom, while a much smaller 37% of those who somewhat disapprove of the president strongly oppose the plan.
Just about four in 10 conservative Republicans (42%) say they are strongly in favor of the plan. Conversely, 82% of liberal Democrats and 73% of moderate and conservative Democrats oppose it strongly.
Methodology: This ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll was conducted online via the probability-based Ipsos KnowledgePanel® Oct. 24-28, 2025, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 2,725 U.S. adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.9 percentage points, including the design effect. Error margins are larger for subgroups. The partisan divisions are 28% Democrats, 31% Republicans and 41% independents or something else.
See more details on ABC News’ survey methodology here.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump renewed his pledge to crackdown on immigration following the shooting of two National Guard members in the nation’s capital.
The White House posted a video Wednesday evening in which Trump called the shooting an “act of hatred,” and noted the alleged suspect, identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national, was among hundreds flown to the U.S. during and after the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 during the Biden administration.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem posted on X that the suspect entered the U.S. “under Operation Allies Welcome on September 8, 2021.” It wasn’t clear whether the flight was part of the evacuation or resettlement process. Officials have confirmed Lakanwal worked for the CIA and the U.S. military in Afghanistan.
Trump railed against immigrants and those fleeing war-torn countries, calling for the reexamination of all Afghan immigrants admitted under Biden.
“This attack underscores the greatest national security threat facing our nation,” he said. “The last administration let in 20 million unknown and unvetted foreigners from all over the world, from places that you don’t even want to know about. No country can tolerate such a risk to our very survival.”
“We must now re-examine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden, and we must take all necessary measures to ensure the removal of any alien from any country, who does not belong here, or add benefit to our country. If they can’t love our country we don’t want them,” he added.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced Wednesday evening that it had paused immigration applications from Afghans.
“Effective immediately, processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols,” the agency said in an X post.
While Trump was quick to blame Biden, Lakanwal applied for asylum in 2024 and was granted asylum in April 2025, under Trump’s second administration.
Groups that have supported Afghan nationals pushed back against the administration’s actions.
Richard Bennett, the U.N. special Rapporteur for human rights in Afghanistan, said Thursday that “the perpetrator should face accountability but the entire Afghan community must not be punished due to the actions of one individual.”
“That would be terribly unjust and complete nonsense,” he said.
Shawn VanDiver, the president of Afghan Evac, an organization that helps Afghans immigrate, also condemned the suspect but called on leaders to “not demonize the Afghan community for the deranged choice this person made.”
“Afghan immigrants and wartime allies who resettle in the United States undergo some of the most extensive security vetting of any population entering the country,” he said in a statement.
The president on Wednesday night went on to attack Somalis living in Minnesota, which comes in the wake of his decision to once again attempt to terminate temporary protected status (TPS) for Somalis living in the state.
“An example is Minnesota, where hundreds of thousands of Somalians are ripping off our country and ripping apart that once great state. Billions of dollars are lost and gangs of Somalians come from a country that doesn’t even have a government, no laws, no water, no military, no nothing as their representatives in our country preach to us about our Constitution and how our country is no good,” Trump alleged.
“We’re not going to put up with these kind of assaults on law and order by people who shouldn’t even be in our country,” he added.
In the past, Democrats and immigration advocates have pushed back against the president’s immigration restrictions, including on asylum seekers, contending that he has exaggerated national security concerns and turned away millions of families in need.
“It’s not surprising that the President has chosen to broadly target an entire community. This is what he does to change the subject,” Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz said in a social media post this week after Trump announced he was ending TPS protections for Somali nationals.
(WASHINGTON) — Returning from the White House Wednesday after President Donald Trump made yet another call for Senate Republicans to overturn the filibuster, Majority Leader John Thune reiterated his view that there are not the necessary votes among Senate Republicans to change the Senate rules.
Thune was asked Wednesday if he believed that Trump could sway some of his reluctant members to support the filibuster.
“I don’t doubt that he could have some sway with members,” Thune said. “But I know where the math is on this issue in the Senate, and … it’s just not happening.”
Thune has been an outspoken defender of the Senate’s rule requiring 60 votes to pass most legislative matters. But he’s not the only Republican who has publicly expressed skepticism about overturning the rule.
Republican Sen. Mike Rounds was among the group of Republicans who met with Trump for breakfast at the White House after a bruising election night, which saw Democratic victories in several races. After the meeting, Rounds said that the president made “a really good point” about Republicans changing the rule. But he wasn’t sold.
“I think there’s a lot of us that really think the Senate was designed in the first place to find a long term, stable solution to problems, so we’ll listen to what the president has to say,” Rounds said.
GOP Sen. John Kennedy called the filibuster “important.”
“My position hasn’t changed,” Kennedy said Wednesday. “As I’ve said before, the role of a senator is not just to advance good ideas. The role of a senator it to kill bad ideas. And when you’re in the minority, we’re not now, but we could be someday, it’s important to have a filibuster.”
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis said his views on the filibuster aren’t changing.
“There’s nothing that could move me on the filibuster,” Tillis said. “I’ve been that way for 11 years. Too old to change now.”
Other lawmakers said they they could be persuaded to end the filibuster.
GOP Sen. John Cornyn has been an outspoken defendant of the filibuster for years. On Wednesday, he told reporters, “I’m open to changing the filibuster.”
Cornyn said his mind is being changed on this issue by the “fact that we haven’t been able to do regular order appropriations for a while” and “having a willful minority being able to shut down the government at any time they want to.”
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley also said the shutdown was beginning to change his tune on the rule.
“My message is to my Democrat friends; we better find a way to get to the table real fast. Because if you’re putting me to a choice between, are people going to eat, or am I going to defend the arcane filibuster rules, I’m going to choose people eating. So, we’re getting there real fast,” Hawley said.
Thune said Trump “honestly believes” in ending the filibuster, but then pivoted, saying the focus should be on reopening the government — which has been shut down for 36 days as of Wednesday, making it the longest government shutdown in history.
He was asked whether he agreed with Trump’s assessment that the government shutdown negatively affected Republicans during Tuesday’s election. He said it was “hard to draw conclusions.”
“Well, I mean, here in Northern Virginia, possibly. I don’t know for sure,” Thune said of the Virginia election, which saw Democratic victories for the governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general races. “This is a community here, obviously, in Northern Virginia, that has a lot of federal workers. So it certainly could have been a factor in the elections.”
The election losses, Thune said, were “pretty much expected.”
“So I think that, you know, the challenge for us going forward is to make sure we are speaking to the issues the American people care about — the economic issues.”
Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer took a victory lap on the Senate floor Wednesday morning, saying the election results prove that it’s time for Republicans to negotiate with Democrats on ending the shutdown.
“Last night was a great night for America and a five-alarm fire for Donald Trump and Republicans. The Republicans’ high-cost house is on fire, and they’ve only got themselves to blame,” Schumer said on the floor. “As loudly and clearly as they could have, the American people said last night, ‘Enough is enough.'”
Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, in a new letter addressed to Trump, are demanding a bipartisan meeting with Republicans to end the shutdown and address the “Republican health care crisis.”
Schumer and Jeffries have repeatedly requested bipartisan negotiations throughout the shutdown.
“It is time to sit down and negotiate with Democrats to bring this Republican shutdown to an end,” Schumer said on the floor Wednesday. “We told the president we’ve been asking for a meeting for weeks and even months, but now the election results ought to send a much needed bolt of lightning to Donald Trump that he should meet with us to end this crisis.”
ABC News’ Lauren Peller contributed to this report.
(CHICAGO) — The Illinois National Guard has received an official notification from the Pentagon authorizing a mission in Chicago, according to an Illinois official.
The official confirmed the mission will involve 300 Guardsmen tasked with protecting federal property under Title 10 authorities.
The Guard has not received mobilization orders, which means it will take a number of days to process and muster soldiers — and train them for the mission, according to the official.
At the very earliest, Guardsmen would be deployed in Chicago at the end of this week, the official said.
“The Governor did not receive any calls from any federal officials. The Illinois National Guard communicated to the Department of War that the situation in Illinois does not require the use of the military and, as a result, the Governor opposes the deployment of the National Guard under any status,” a spokesperson for Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said in a statement.
The authorization comes amid escalating tensions in Chicago over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents on Saturday shot and wounded a woman they alleged was part of a convoy of protesters that rammed their vehicles during an “ambush.”
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Border Patrol agents opened fire on the woman in self-defense, alleging she was armed with a semiautomatic weapon and was driving one of three vehicles that “cornered” and rammed the CBP agents’ vehicles.
Describing the incident as “really strange,” Noem alleged that before the shooting, a caravan of 10 vehicles was following the CBP agents and officers through the streets of Chicago.
“They had followed them and gotten them cornered, pinned them down and then our agents, when getting out of their cars, they tried to run them over and had semiautomatic handguns on them to where our agents had to protect themselves and shots were fired and an individual ended up in the hospital that was attacking these officers,” Noem said in a statement on Sunday.
