Donald Trump’s handpicked National Capital Planning Commission voted Thursday to authorize the president’s plan to erect a gilded 90,000-square-foot White House ballroom in place of the historic East Wing, which was destroyed last fall to make way for the ballroom.
The commission, helmed by White House staff secretary Will Scharf, was widely expected to vote to approve the $400 million ballroom. The vote included an amendment to the original ballroom blueprint that removed a proposed staircase from the south portico and added a switchback feature to a planned southwest staircase.
But the construction plan still faces a new legal hurdle after a federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from breaking ground on the ballroom and further demolishing the East Wing.
Demolition of the East Wing began in October. The project drew widespread backlash from preservationists and the public, who condemned the proposed construction in more than 35,000 pages of public comment released by the commission ahead of their meeting last month.
“I wept when I saw the rubble where once stood the beautiful East Wing that welcomed visitors from around the world to the nation’s capital, to the Peoples’ House, The White House,” Michele Lagueux wrote in a comment submitted on Feb. 17. Others called the plans “upsetting,” “appalling,” “fascist” and “too massive.”
Scharf claimed to have “personally read every single comment submitted to this commission” during Thursday’s meeting. He argued that many of the “negative comments” the commission received were “unhelpful form letters circulated by groups that oppose the ballroom” and that they raised issues outside the commission’s scope.
“We are not some sort of free-ranging Ballroom Justice Commission,” Scharf said in sprawling remarks before announcing he would vote to green-light the plans.
The commission would have taken the final procedural vote to authorize construction after the public comment review in March, but the vote was delayed due to the high volume of comments and testimony, Scharf said. He later walked those comments back and said the vote had been planned for April 2 “for quite some time.”
Commissioner Phil Mendelson, chairman of the Council of the District of Columbia, raised concerns over the precedent the ballroom could set for White House renovations before voting against its construction.
“I don’t think we should be looking at the White House piecemeal,” Mendelson said.
The commission passed the plan in a 9-1 vote. Mendelson dissented, and Commissioners Linda Argo and Arrington Dixon abstained from voting. Argo echoed Mendelson’s concerns about the fast approval timeline in her remarks before the vote.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, who sided with the National Trust for Historic Preservation in granting the preliminary injunction to halt Trump’s ballroom, noted in his order that the president is a “steward” of the White House for future generations, not the “owner” of the building.
The nonprofit that brought the lawsuit insisted the president exceeded his authority when he destroyed the East Wing and unilaterally launched the ballroom construction project without congressional approval. The Commission of Fine Arts panel — also handpicked by Trump — approved initial plans for the ballroom build earlier this year.
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Leon concluded that no work can continue until the project receives “express authorization” from Congress. His order is on hold for the next 12 days to allow time for the Trump administration to appeal.
Scharf said the order “really does not impact our action here today,” at the top of Thursday’s commission meeting. “The injunction doesn’t speak to the NCPC review process,” he added.
Following the vote, a White House official told MS NOW that work will continue on the ballroom project as needed and allowed by Leon, adding that above-ground construction has yet to begin.
The president was quick to rebuke Leon, a George W. Bush appointee, for ruling against the ballroom in a lengthy Truth Social tirade.
A slate of private donors, including many of the same tech and cryptocurrency giants who donated to Trump’s inaugural fund, have fronted the cash for the ballroom’s construction.
Also Thursday, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., heard arguments over a motion for a preliminary injunction in a case challenging Trump’s planned “Independence Arch.” A group of veterans brought the suit in February arguing that the construction project interfered with Arlington National Cemetery.
Trump announced in October his plans to build a 250-foot-tall triumphal arch at the southern end of Arlington Memorial Bridge, which spans the Potomac River between Washington, D.C., and Virginia.
Judge Tanya Chutkan gave the parties until 5 p.m. Friday to come to an agreement that ground will not be broken while the case is pending.
Peggy Helman contributed to this report.
Sydney Carruth is a breaking news reporter covering national politics and policy for MS NOW. You can send her tips from a non-work device on Signal at SydneyCarruth.46 or follow her work on X and Bluesky.