The country’s leading historic preservation organization is suing the Trump administration to block construction of the president’s massive ballroom planned for the White House until review committees rule on the project.
O National Trust for Historic Preservation (National Fund for Historic Preservation), a non-profit organization created by Congress and charged with preserving, stated that it filed the lawsuit because its previous letter, in which it asked for the project to be suspended, was ignored.
The group, which calls the construction project “illegal,” is asking the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to suspend activities until the government complies with review processes, including a public consultation period.
“The White House is arguably our country’s most iconic building and a globally recognized symbol of our powerful American ideals. As an organization charged with protecting the places where our history took place, the National Trust felt compelled to bring this lawsuit,” said Carol Quillen, president and CEO of the group.
The lawsuit includes as defendants, along with the National Park Service, the Department of the Interior and the General Services Administration, as well as employees who work at those agencies.
“President Trump has full legal authority to modernize, renovate and beautify the White House – just as all of his predecessors have done,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement to CNN.
Although Trump announced months ago his plans to replace the Ala Leste for the new ballroom – a necessary addition, he said, to accommodate large events – demolition proceeded without an extensive public consultation process.
“No president is legally permitted to demolish parts of the building without any kind of review – not President Trump, not President Joe Biden, not anyone else,” the organization’s complaint states.
In October, the group sent a letter to the administration, “respectfully,” urging it to “suspend demolition until plans for the proposed ballroom undergo the legally required public consultation processes, including consultation and review by the National Capital Planning Commission and the Fine Arts Commission, and to invite public input.”
The two commissions to which the letter was addressed — the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts — have already analyzed proposals to expand the White House.
This includes changes to the perimeter fence and the construction of a new tennis pavilion over the past decade.
The current chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission, Will Scharf, who also serves as Trump’s team secretary, stated during a commission meeting last month that his jurisdiction covers construction but not demolition — suggesting that the agency would eventually become involved in the project, but only after the East Wing has been demolished.
At a meeting of the National Capital Planning Commission in early December, Scharf said he was told by White House colleagues that plans for the ballroom would be submitted to the agency that month.
