White House Says It Will Submit Ballroom Plans ‘Soon’ as Outrage Grows Over Demolition of East Wing
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
As outrage grows over the construction of President Donald Trump’s ballroom, the White House now says it will submit plans “soon” — but a substantial portion of the East Wing has already been demolished.
The ballroom has been a pet project for the president, who boasted last month that it would be “absolutely magnificent construction” and “one of the best anywhere in the world,” but it has sparked significant controversy.
Trump has said the ballroom will be funded by private donors; the specifics remain murky and the endeavor has raised ethical questions.
What critics find most troubling, however, is the expansive nature of the plans and the president’s broken promise that the construction “won’t interfere with the current building” and would be “near [the East Wing] but not touching it.” Photos and video from Tuesday showed the construction crews had gone well beyond “interfering” with the East Wing; the façade was demolished and then an additional major section.
Opponents of the project object to the lack of review and question why the plans were not submitted before work began.
“The White House still intends to submit those plans to the National Capital Planning Commission, which oversees federal construction in Washington and neighboring states, a White House official told Reuters,” as the outlet reported Tuesday evening.
The White House has argued that the NCPC does not have the power to review demolition work, only construction, but a former NCPC commissioner disagreed.
“Demolition really cannot be separated from the new construction that follows,” Bryan Green, who was on the NCPC during President Joe Biden’s term, told Reuters. “These are linked.”
Still, if the plans had been submitted to the NCPC before demolition began, it “would have avoided the shock that many observers felt this week,” Reuters’ report noted.
“You don’t have the image of a wrecking ball hitting the president’s house, one of the most important buildings in our country, by surprise to everyone except a small handful of people,” said Green.
The White House has pushed back on the criticism, dismissing it as “manufactured outrage,” but nonetheless did say they would go ahead and submit plans — at some undefined time “soon.”
“Construction plans have not yet been submitted to the National Capital Planning Commission but will be soon,” a White House official told Reuters.
