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It’s Thursday. Welcome to Day 23 of the government shutdown with no clear plan to end it.

In today's issue:

• White House demolition infuriates critics

• Donor list for Trump’s $300M ballroom unveiled

• NBA player, coach charged in Mafia-backed scheme

• Trump pardons crypo company's billionaire founder

• Senate *won’t* hold another funding vote today

🚧 AT THE WHITE HOUSE

Do you think the next project will be to paint it gold?:

Since President Trump returned to Washington in January, he has been moving at warp speed to leave his mark.

Think: Shrinking the federal government, shuttering agencies, making unilateral funding decisions and deploying National Guard troops in cities despite protests by local officials.

But his latest project — bringing in bulldozers to knock down the entire East Wing of the White House — has struck a particular nerve among critics.

It’s all everyone in Washington is talking about this week. Footage of demolition equipment tearing down part of the historical structure to allow for construction of the president’s proposed 90,000-square-foot ballroom has been all over social media.

Officials at the nearby Treasury Department have even clamped down on employees sharing photos of the demolition.

Still, plenty of images have emerged of the construction site:

📹 Demolition happening this morning

📸 Doug Mills photo of the construction

📸Overhead photo of the Rose Garden Club

(Lol, this should be an Apple ad: Spectrum News’s Taylor Popielarz posted, “Thanks to the new iPhone camera, I was able to get this view of the East Wing of the White House this morning as it gets demolished. This vantage point is from the south end of the Treasury Department.” 📹 The footage)

Critics are furious that Trump is overhauling the historic building for what they view as a gaudy personal project, reports The Hill’s Brett Samuels.

It’s not just this project: Trump has also paved over the Rose Garden grass, added numerous gold decor to the Oval Office and installed flag poles on the White House lawn.

^ Oh, and this is new: CBS News’s Jennifer Jacobs reports the Trump administration is upgrading the White House........

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