The East Wing teardown and the federal shutdown: perspectives from NYTimes's Luke Broadwater

By Tom Hall,

Published October 27, 2025 at 12:39 PM EDT

Demolition proceeds on the East Wing of the White House on October 22, 2025, making room for a planned 1000-seat ballroom. Construction workers, bottom right, watch from atop the neighboring U.S. Treasury building.

This is Day 27 of the federal government shutdown.

Luke Broadwater is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who covers the White House for the New York Times.

Last Friday, Maryland Senators Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks joined U.S. Representatives Don Beyer and James Walkinshaw (both D-Va.) and more than 60 of their colleagues in the Senate and House in urging the Trump Administration to immediately reinstate any furloughed employees of agencies that are funded by collected user fees.

Because they are funded by fees, these agencies are not affected by the lapse in appropriations from Congress. Most of these agencies have continued their work during previous shutdowns.

For an informed perspective on the latest from Washington, we turn to Luke Broadwater, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and a White House correspondent for the New York Times. He’s also the author, with Annie Karni, of Madhouse, a chronicle of Congressional dysfunction in the wake of the January 6th attack on the US Capitol in 2021.