A federal judge on Thursday questioned whether the Trump administration is legally allowed to build President Donald Trump’s planned White House ballroom, asking Justice Department lawyers to cite the relevant law.
“Where do you see the authority for the president to tear down the East Wing and build something in its place?” said Judge Richard Leon, an appointee of President George W. Bush. Historic preservationists sued the Trump administration in December, demanding that the project first undergo reviews.
Leon criticized the Trump administration for an “end run” around congressional oversight by soliciting private donations to build the planned $400 million ballroom, characterizing the administration’s argument to rely on Interior Department authority as a “Rube Goldberg contraption.”
Leon also repeatedly pressed Justice Department lawyers to explain how Trump had the authority to rapidly demolish the East Wing annex and construct a planned 90,000-square-foot ballroom. He mocked the administration’s comparison of the project to a swimming pool built in 1975 by then-President Gerald Ford that was funded by private donations.
“You compare that to ripping down the East Wing and building a new East Wing?” Leon said. “C’mon. Be serious.”
Leon said that he did not plan to rule on the matter in January but could issue a decision in February. The White House has said it plans to begin aboveground construction of the ballroom in April.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit group charged by Congress with helping preserve historical buildings, sued the Trump administration in December, arguing that the White House had failed to undertake legally required reviews as well as obtain authorization from Congress before demolishing the East Wing.
“The president is a temporary resident of the White House. He’s not the landlord,” said Tad Heuer, a Foley Hoag lawyer representing the National Trust, calling for a halt to construction.
“He’s a steward,” Leon replied.
Justice Department lawyers argued that Congress had authorized the White House to pursue changes to its campus by setting aside several million dollars in funding and allowing the Interior Department to solicit gifts for national parks. Leon said that the congressional authorization was narrow and limited to matters such as White House maintenance.
Yaakov Roth, a Justice Department lawyer arguing the case, told Leon that construction could not be halted, citing national security reasons.
“It can’t be divided out that way,” Roth said.
The hearing came hours after Trump’s handpicked arts commissioners met to discuss the planned ballroom, with the panel’s leader raising several questions about its size and design but indicating he favors the controversial project.
“It’s an important thing to the president. It’s an important thing to the nation. We all know it,” said Rodney Mims Cook Jr., the newly elected chairman of the Commission of Fine Arts. He added that there was a clear need to create a permanent space where presidents could host large events. “I think that that is our charge and take care of what the president wants us to do.”
The Commission of Fine Arts is one of two federal panels set to review the proposed ballroom’s design, effect on the city’s historic views and other aspects of urban planning. The White House has said it hopes to obtain approval from the panels in the next two months, a far faster review process compared with other large projects that have sometimes needed years.
Both the Commission of Fine Arts and the other panel, the National Capital Planning Commission, are now led by Trump appointees after the president removed members named by the Biden administration. The Commission of Fine Arts’ new members include James McCrery II, who served as Trump’s first architect on the planned White House ballroom, and Cook, a developer and designer who served on the commission during the first Trump administration before being removed by Biden.
Shalom Baranes, chief architect of the White House ballroom project, on Thursday largely reprised a presentation he gave to the planning commission earlier this month, detailing the nearly 90,000-square-foot building and the 22,000-square-foot ballroom inside.
The Trump administration argued that administrations have long needed a larger space to entertain VIP guests like foreign dignitaries and cultural icons. Josh Fisher, director of White House management and administration, told commissioners that the ballroom will help Trump and future presidents carry out their policy agendas by presenting the country in the best possible light.
“It is a stage for democracy,” Fisher said. “It is where alliances will be honored, where cultural achievements will be recognized and where the United States will present itself to the world.”
The arts commissioners raised several questions about the planned project. Cook pressed Baranes on whether the ballroom’s pediment — the triangular arch above the planned portico — could be reduced.
“It is immense,” he said, comparing it to the much larger Treasury building next door and warning of the visual impact as people look upon the White House from the south side of the building. “It’s immense.”
Baranes said the design was Trump’s preference.
Mary Anne Carter, another newly named fine arts commissioner who also chairs the National Endowment for the Arts, questioned Baranes on whether the ballroom offered sufficient protection for the president and asked for updates at future meetings. The arts panel’s purview has historically focused on design matters, not security.
“We all want it to be beautiful,” Carter said. “We also want this president and future presidents to be safe and secure.”
Trump, who has faced potential assassination attempts, has said he wants the ballroom to be equipped to host a presidential inauguration.
McCrery, having worked on the ballroom, recused himself from the presentation.
The other two new arts commissioners — Roger Kimball, a conservative art critic, and Matthew Taylor, an artist and filmmaker who Trump installed at the National Endowment for the Humanities last year — did not ask questions.
The Commission of Fine Arts collected several dozen public comments that were overwhelmingly critical of the planned project, a CFA official told the new commissioners.
Baranes said that more details about the project, including 3D drawings, would be coming soon. He also told the panel that he had not begun designing a planned second-story addition to the West Wing colonnade, which White House officials have proposed as a way to balance the two buildings flanking the executive mansion. Whether the colonnade gets built will depend on the results of ongoing structural assessments, he said.
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