Was a plaque quoting President Franklin D. Roosevelt about "a house owned by all the American people" torn down by the demolition of the East Wing of the White House? No, that's not true: The FDR quote is engraved into a stone wall at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial. Tourists can find it in the first section of the "Second Term Room" of the memorial, which is next to the Washington, D.C., tidal basin, more than a mile from the White House.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) shared by the @stealthygeek account on X on October 24, 2025. The caption of an image of the quote read:
This plaque in the East Wing of the White House has been torn down by Donald Trump, a convicted felon and adjudicated rapist.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Patrick S. Tomlinson on Twitter
This plaque in the East Wing of the White House has been torn down by Donald Trump, a convicted felon and adjudicated rapist. https://t.co/Tj4ZZmWlO0
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of X.com)
The inscription read:
I NEVER FORGET THAT I LIVE IN A HOUSE OWNED BY ALL THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AND THAT I HAVE BEEN GIVEN THEIR TRUST.
A tour guide (archived here) on the National Park Service website provides a step-by-step description of the FDR memorial. There are four sections, one for each of Roosevelt's four presidential terms. The inscription is in the "Second Term Room," which covers the years 1937 through 1941. It is next to a George Segal sculpture titled "Fireside Chat." This photograph of the stone wall is from a blogspot travel page (archived here):
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of souvenirchronicles.blogspot.com)
The East Wing of the White House was demolished in late October 2025, in preparation for the construction of a new ballroom.
