President Trump on Tuesday fired all six sitting members of a board that oversees architecture in Washington, D.C., CBS News has confirmed, as the president plans a slate of major building projects in the capital city — including a massive White House ballroom.
“We are preparing to appoint a new slate of members to the commission that are more aligned with President Trump’s America First Policies,” a White House official told CBS News.
The Commission of Fine Arts had six members, all of whom were appointed during former President Joe Biden’s term. Their ouster is not without precedent: The Biden administration replaced at least six members of the commission who were named during Mr. Trump’s first term.
The firings come as Mr. Trump seeks to put his stamp on D.C., with plans to replace the White House’s East Wing with a 90,000-square-foot ballroom and build a gigantic triumphal arch across the river from D.C. He also signed an executive order in August titled “Making Federal Architecture Beautiful Again,” which called for classical architecture modeled on ancient Greece and Rome to be the default style for D.C.-area buildings moving forward.
President Donald Trump holds a model of an arch as he delivers remarks during a ballroom fundraising dinner in the East Room of the White House on October 15. / Credit: Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images
The Commission of Fine Arts is one of several boards that reviews, provides comments on and approves construction in the capital, along with the National Capital Planning Commission. Mr. Trump picked three new members of the latter commission in July, including Chair William Scharf, a White House aide.
It’s not clear whether the White House intends to submit its ballroom plans to the Commission of Fine Arts, which has overseen some prior White House projects. A White House official told CBS News last week that the plans will be submitted to the National Capital Planning Commission.
Mr. Trump’s construction kick has drawn a polarizing response. The sudden decision to demolish the East Wing last week — despite Mr. Trump’s earlier claim that the ballroom project would not touch the existing building — has faced criticism, and some historic preservation groups have urged the Trump administration to go through the normal approval process for the ballroom project.
“This project represents one of the most substantial alterations to the White House in modern history,” Democratic Reps. Jared Huffman, Robert Garcia and Yassamin Ansari said in a letter to the president. “The decisions were made in complete secrecy and undertaken without public disclosure or proper consultation.”
The White House, meanwhile, has called the pushback “manufactured outrage” and argued that prior presidents have also made changes to the complex. The administration has also cast the ballroom as a necessary addition to a building that’s lacking in large event spaces.
At a dinner earlier this month to thank private donors to the $300 million ballroom project, Mr. Trump marveled at how easily he was able to kick off construction.
“They said, ‘Sir, you can start tonight,” the president — no stranger to real estate development — told attendees. “‘You have zero zoning conditions. You’re the president.'”
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