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Alyssa Farah Griffin<\/a>, a former aide to Donald Trump<\/a> in his first term, slammed the president on Tuesday after crews began to demolish<\/a> the White House\u2019s East Wing to clear the way for his 90,000-square-foot, $250 million ballroom.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe optics, Americans are struggling … The cost of living is not coming down, you have more unemployed Americans than you do jobs available right now,\u201d said \u201cThe View<\/a>\u201d host.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt feels like Marie Antoinette, let them eat cake, we\u2019re building a ballroom while [you] pay the bill.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Moments earlier, Griffin said she fears the planned event space<\/a> \u2014 which Trump claims to be<\/a> at \u201czero cost\u201d to taxpayers \u2014 might look \u201cmore like a Florida country club\u201d than the White House, a nod to the planned ballroom\u2019s eerie similarities<\/a> to one the president has at his Mar-a-Lago estate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n She added that while presidents \u201ctechnically have the authority\u201d to make such changes, they traditionally run them past the National Capital Planning Commission.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n A White House spokesperson told Axios<\/a> that it looks to submit the ballroom plans to the NCPC \u201csoon.\u201d The NCPC oversees federal construction in Washington, D.C., but demolition isn\u2019t in the agency\u2019s purview, an NCPC spokesperson told the outlet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Later in the segment, Whoopi Goldberg<\/a> jumped in as Griffin pointed to Trump\u2019s interest in \u201csweeping, huge\u201d state dinners in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cBut remind everybody where they\u2019re having the sweeping \u2014 it\u2019s in the castle, it\u2019s Windsor Castle,\u201d Goldberg said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cYou mean the king\u2019s castle,\u201d replied host Sunny Hostin<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cSo that\u2019s why he wants to build it,\u201d Griffin continued.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n