Betty Ford perfectly expressed how special the East Wing is: “If the West Wing is the mind of the nation, then the East Wing is its heart.”

No wonder we are all so heartbroken.

The beating heart of the now-demolished East Wing of the White House was its eight-decade-long association with America’s First Ladies. Now this storied structure has been treated by Trump as disrespectfully as he treats the ladies in general.

Imagine how Betty Ford would feel.

It made me think of another Betty, my mother, and her heroine, Eleanor Roosevelt, a woman famously associated with the East Wing.

What would ER make of this unsanctioned, disgraceful, destruction?

Eleanor Roosevelt created the modern role of First Lady.

She was the first First Lady to professionalize the position, using the East Wing as a base for her activism and official duties. From this space, she held numerous press conferences, met with diverse groups, and expanded the role of the first lady beyond social hosting.

The first press conference by a First Lady

On March 6, 1933, two days after her husband’s inauguration, Eleanor Roosevelt held a press conference in the Red Room of the East Wing.  It was the first press conference by a First Lady.

Press conferences may seem routine today, but this action was transformative in several ways. Due to the traditionally private nature of the role of First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt’s predecessors typically closed themselves off from the press.

Not only was Eleanor the first presidential wife to hold a press conference, but she was also among the first to even speak openly with the press.

The press conference was groundbreaking in other ways as well.

All 30 reporters attending it were women — Roosevelt had insisted that only women could cover her event. At the time, women made up a tiny proportion of working journalists, but news agencies had to hire women if they wanted to cover ER.

Over her twelve years as First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt held 348 press conferences.

Most of these were in the East Wing, giving physical access to that space to female reporters for the first time. At that first press conference, ER told the female reporters in attendance that they were going to be the “interpreters to the women of the country as to what goes on politically in the legislative national life, and also what the social and personal life is at the White House.”

Eleanor Roosevelt sought to make women a part of the national political audience and inspired many women to stay informed and get involved.

It certainly inspired my teenage mother, Betty.

As an aspiring journalist and editor of her high school newspaper in Brooklyn, Betty would envision herself in the East Wing among the female reporters at the press conference, peppering Mrs. Roosevelt with timely questions. Though it would be unlikely that “The Dutchman” the weekly newspaper from Erasmus High School, would get a press privileges,  it allowed Betty to imagine a time when anything was open to women.

For Women By Women

Eleanor wrote in her book, “This I Remember” that by covering these conferences, female reporters would be able to provide information that was “of special interest and value to the women of the country.” The audience of these female journalists was certainly not limited to women; men and women alike were drawn to ER’s interpretation of the news, such as the rising threat of Hitler in Europe or the challenges of social welfare institutions.

Her work established a precedent for future First Ladies,

Most First Ladies since Eleanor Roosevelt have followed her example and used their role to communicate with  Americans about issues that they believe are important, creating a more public role for First Ladies in the White House.

Gone Girl

In demolishing the East Wing, Trump is demolishing part of the legacy of one of America’s greatest First Ladies, an advocate for women and marginalized people.

The demolition suggests that Trump does not think that the First Lady does anything of value.

The silence from our current absentee First Lady has been deafening.

Post Script

Trump inserted himself in the First Lady’s portrait gallery East Wing

 In June, there was a tip-off to Trump’s destructive plan for the East Wing; in his way, he wanted to control and dominate the imagery.

The White House hung a Trump painting where Hillary Clinton’s portrait was in the East Wing. The rendering of Trump’s ominous face overlaid with an American flag was done by a MAGA-aligned artist and was crammed in between 2 official First Lady portraits.