The National Trust for Historic Preservation is asking a federal court to stop Trump’s White House ballroom project until it goes through comprehensive design reviews and public comments and wins approval from Congress.
The National Trust argues that Trump, by fast-tracking the project, has committed multiple violations of the Administrative Procedures Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, while also exceeding his constitutional authority by not seeking congressional approval for a project of this scale.
Trump, a Republican, already has bypassed the federal government’s usual building practices and historical reviews when he razed the East Wing of the White House. He recently added another architectural firm for a ballroom that itself would be nearly twice the size of the White House before the East Wing’s demolition.
He said it’s going to be double the size of the original renderings, that’s why it’s so much more expensive. It’s already a story above the main part of what we think of as the white house.