Michelle Obama would like to remind everyone that the White House is the “people’s house.”
During an appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on Tuesday, Nov. 4, the former First Lady spoke publicly for the first time since President Trump began demolishing the White House’s East Wing to make way for a new ballroom.
“People have asked me how I felt about the move,” she said. “What I will remind people is that house is not our house. We never viewed it as our house. We were there for a time. We had a job to do. We always felt it was the people’s house.”
The lawyer and author, who lived in the White House with her husband, former President Barack Obama, and their daughters, Sasha and Malia, from 2009 to 2017, went on to note that every administration leaves its mark on the residence — and that repairs and upgrades are part of that responsibility.
“Every family, every administration, has a right and a duty to maintain the house, make investments and improvements. And there are plenty of things that needed fixing there,” she explained.
However, these recent renovations have her confused.
“I am confused by what are our norms? What are our standards, what are our traditions? I just feel like, what is important to us as a nation anymore, because I’m lost,” she admitted.
Michelle added that during her family’s time in the White House, “there were a whole standard of norms and rules that we followed to a T — that we painstakingly tried to uphold, because it was bigger than us.”
Her comments come as Trump’s $300 million East Wing renovation — which will reportedly include a 90,000-square-foot ballroom — continues to spark controversy and mixed public reaction. Preservationists have criticized the demolition as an erasure of history, while supporters have called it a modernization effort. Michelle was also on the show to further promote her new book, “The Look,” which reflects on her fashion and time as First Lady.
Reflecting more on her time at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Obama said the East Wing was more than an office — it was the heart of the home.
“That’s where life happened,” she said. “I mean, the West Wing was work. Sometimes it was sadness. It was problems. It was the guts of the White House. And the East Wing was where you felt light. It was an important distinction, because the West Wing team needed that break — they needed to come to a place where they could be reminded of the reason we were doing this.”
