“I’m struggling to see this is an ‘alteration,’” a district court judge said of Trump’s proposed White House ballroom.
A federal judge has criticized President Donald Trump’s decision to demolish the East Wing of the White House and replace it with a $400 million ballroom.
According to The Guardian, Judge Richard Leon expressed skepticism of the administration’s description of the reconstruction as little more than an “alteration” to the building’s historic design.
“I’m struggling to see this is an ‘alteration,’” Leon said during a hearing.
The lawsuit, notes The Guardian, was filed on behalf of the National Trust for the Historic Preservation, or NTHP. Attorneys for the trust claim that the demolition and planned construction are unlawful in the absence of congressional approval. The complaint also suggests that, under federal rules, a building like the White House shouldn’t be substantially altered unless and until the plan for reconstruction has passed independent review.
In an unsurprising Trumpian take on events, lawyers for the federal government argued that the president does not need any outside permission for the project. If allowed to continue, the ballroom would be completed by 2028.
Trump has frequently boasted about the project, though critics have called the proposed design tacky and speculated that the president is trying to recreate the flagrant, classless opulence abundant in the president’s personally-owned properties.
The Guardian reports that, in October, Trump fired all six members of the once-independent U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, which would have been responsible for reviewing the ballroom plan; they were quickly replaced by handpicked nominees, who provided their unanimous consent for the project last month.
The National Capital Planning Commission, a separate federal body charged with reviewing the project, said that it would abstain from voting until at least April, pointing to a “large amount of public input” that must first be taken into consideration.
Earlier this week, during the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s hearing, attorney Thaddeus Heuer accused the Trump administration of treating the case like a “months-long merry-go-round ride” over responsibility and authority for the project.
By the time that a legal decision is actually reached, Heuer said, it would likely be too late for anybody to stop the ballroom from being constructed.
“What they can’t do here is have it both ways,” Heuer said.
Leon, who was appointed to his position by former President George W. Bush, did not seem much inclined toward the administration’s tactics.
“This has been a case where there have been shifting theories, shifting dynamics, I regret to say, from the beginning,” Leon said, noting that the Trump administration has “no track record” of following established approval processes.
Sources
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