Feb 19 - President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts has approved his administration's proposed $400 million White House ballroom, taking the project a step closer to further federal review.
Trump made the announcement on Truth Social, saying the Fine Arts Commission voted "unanimously, 6 to 0, with one recusal because he had a conflict in that he worked professionally on the job, the White House Ballroom." He added that "Great accolades were paid to the building’s beauty and scale."
The Fine Arts Commission is one of two federal bodies charged with oversight of major projects in the Washington, D.C. area. The other is the National Capital Planning Commission, which is chaired by Will Scharf, who previously served as the president's personal lawyer.
The planning commission stated it will consider the proposed 90,000-square-foot (8,000-square-meter) addition to the East Wing on March 5, at which time it will review the submission "for approval of preliminary and final site and building plans." That meeting represents the next formal step in the federal review process for the addition.
At the same time, the project is under scrutiny in the federal courts. A judge last month voiced doubts about whether the administration has the authority to proceed with construction after an earlier building was demolished without explicit congressional approval. Those legal questions remain unresolved and add uncertainty to the project's timeline and ultimate outcome.
The Fine Arts Commission vote follows a replacement of its membership last year by the president, when all six commissioners were changed. The unanimous approval, aside from one recusal, does not remove the requirement for subsequent approvals or resolve the legal challenges the project currently faces.
Context and next steps
The commission's endorsement clears a procedural hurdle but does not finalize the project. The planning commission review on March 5 and the ongoing federal court actions are the two remaining, publicly disclosed processes that will shape whether the ballroom can proceed to construction.