He destroyed bas relief sculptures and grillwork from the Bonwit Teller department store on Fifth Avenue:
Trumps White House Demolition Isnt His First Time Leveling A Building Or Ignoring Preservationists
With Donald Trump demolishing the White Houses East Wing to make room for a 90,000-square-foot ballroom, the president is returning to the playbook from his Trump Tower daysmove fast, build big and leave preservationists fuming.
I said that if the friezes could be saved, Id be happy to donate them to the museum, Trump wrote in The Art of the Deal; he later confirmed the deal in writing, according to Preservation News, a publication of the National Trust for Historic Preservation of the United States.
In June 1980, however, the sculptures were smashed by jackhammers while the grillwork, which was supposed to be shipped to a New Jersey warehouse, went missing, Preservation News reported at the time.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacheverson/2025/10/22/trump-white-house-east-wing-demolish-tower-bonwit-teller-art-deco/