In his second term, Donald Trump’s core duties as president don’t seem to have inspired him nearly as much as his various side projects. The biggest of those, of course, is his ongoing remodel of the White House. Trump rushed to demolish the whole East Wing before the plans were finalized for the massive ballroom he intends to build in its place. Trump’s speedy approach has all the hallmarks of a real estate developer who, notwithstanding his reputation for micromanaging, prioritizes speed and bravado over patience.
The ballroom project perfectly overlays Trump’s obsession with construction projects with the influence buying he’s encouraged as president.
Because Trump stacked the National Capital Planning Commission with loyalists, that commission is expected to rubber stamp his ballroom proposal Thursday, a few short months after he proposed it. Such a process normally takes years. For example, a relatively simple redesign of the White House fence during Trump’s first term took nine months of reviews and revisions before being approved.
Despite Trump’s rushing and even as cranes loom over the Executive Mansion, a federal judge’s ruling Tuesday over Trump’s plan to use donations from individuals and corporations — many of whom have business before the Trump administration — threatens to waylay construction. In addition to it being emblematic of Trump’s distraction from more pressing matters, the ballroom project perfectly overlays Trump’s obsession with construction projects with the influence buying he’s encouraged as president.
As a rule, real estate developers bemoan the lengthy process it can take to get formal approval for projects. They often must deal with local zoning boards and other bureaucratic red tape before they can break ground. But Trump found a presidential workaround when he not only loaded the NCPC with his picks, but did the same for the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, another independent panel that approves major design projects in Washington.
The New York Times recently noted that the NCPC “never had a say on the concept design.” Meanwhile, the Commission on Fine Arts spent only 12 minutes deliberating the new ballroom design before giving it final clearance. Even so, on Thursday, the NCPC “will vote on a combined preliminary and final review, a move more common for antenna replacements or new security bollards.” A former member of the planning commission told the Times that a project this large “might take its architects and engineers 18 months to two years from initial concept to completed construction documents.”
A more thoughtful review may have helped. The Times detailed the many awkward, clumsy or downright nonsensical details contained in the most recent design. Among them: The proposed South portico’s grand staircase leads nowhere; columns block interior views from the ballroom; and the new addition, if built as designed, would dwarf the White House itself.
Multiple changes have been made to the design since Trump first announced it in July. There has also been an architect change. The kinds of flaws or errors that would normally be caught early in the process are more likely to be overlooked at the speed Trump has demanded. Each of those potential mid-construction alterations could add to the estimated $400 million cost. But again, rather than seeking Congressional funding, the Trump administration is passing the hat for private donations funneled through a nonprofit, the Trust for the National Mall.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which has filed a lawsuit seeking to halt the project, objects to the opacity of the funding scheme. Few of the donors have been willing to divulge how much money they’ve tossed into the pot. In Tuesday’s ruling, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon agreed with the National Trust that there’s no law that allows for the president to use private funds to renovate the White House without congressional approval.
But Leon’s preliminary injunction only pauses the “furtherance of the physical development” of the ballroom project. That leaves the NCPC free to approve the design. And Leon’s ruling suggests the Republican-controlled Congress could approve the ballroom and maybe even allow Trump’s private funding scheme.
Until then, however, the hole in the ground where the East Wing was should remain empty. Once construction begins, it wouldn’t be surprising if Trump’s mercurial moods and constantly shifting requirements further delay the project. Future historians will be hard-pressed to single out a project that better encapsulates the Trump presidency: an unnecessary temple to one man’s whims, wrapped in a patina of potential corruption and that is as ill-considered as it is unsightly.
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