Michelle Obama had a wry, two-word reaction to President Donald Trump’s controversial demolition of the White House’s East Wing to make way for his new ballroom.
Appearing Tuesday on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” the former first lady was asked about the razing of the building where many photos in her new fashion-themed book, “The Look,” were taken.
“Remember that?” Obama quipped, drawing laughter from the audience and Colbert.
Colbert cited former first lady Betty Ford’s famous line that “if the West Wing is the mind of the nation, then the East Wing is the heart,” and asked Obama what she thought had now been lost.
The East Wing was “where life happened,” Obama replied. “The West Wing was work. Sometimes it was sadness, it was problems, it was the guts of the White House, and the East Wing was where you felt light. That’s where children came. We had puppies.”
Obama acknowledged how every administration has the right to improve the White House, but it’s ultimately “The People’s House.”
The demolition of the East Wing highlighted a bigger issue, though, she argued. “It makes me confused. I am confused by what are our norms, what are our standards, what are our traditions. I just feel like, what is important to us as a nation anymore? Because I’m lost.”
“As a country, we have to decide what rules are we following,” she added. “I am lost. And I hope that more Americans feel lost in a way that they want to be found again, because it’s up to us to find what we’re losing.”
Watch from the 14:45 point here: