Trump appoints loyalists to arts commission that will review White House ballroom plans

By Betsy Klein, Devan Cole, Sunlen Serfaty, CNN

(CNN) — The Trump administration took a major step toward giving President Donald Trump’s sweeping new ballroom the green light with the appointment of four new officials to a key Washington, DC, board this week.

The new members of the Commission of Fine Arts, one of two commissions that must review the ballroom plans, were revealed in a court filing Thursday in a lawsuit seeking to stop construction. Trump had gutted the existing six-member board in October as East Wing demolition got underway.

Trump’s project requires a review from the CFA and approval from the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC), where the president has already installed a number of loyalists.

The NCPC met earlier this month to receive a preliminary presentation on the project from the White House and its architect, Shalom Baranes. Meanwhile, CFA’s work advising the federal government on public buildings, national memorials, and coins and medals, among other key areas, has ground to a halt.

The appointments are the latest move underscoring the president’s deep interest in and attention to making aesthetic changes to the White House and Washington, DC, to suit his style and taste. Trump, a former real estate developer, has been personally involved in the ballroom project details, from floor plans to marble selection, touting its progress in recent meetings with world leaders and business titans.

The new CFA members include Mary Anne Carter, the current chair of the National Endowment for the Arts who is a close friend of White House chief of staff Susie Wiles; art critic and conservative commentator Roger Kimball; architect James McCrery, who was previously hired to helm the ballroom construction; and Matthew Taylor, a White House official who is working on Trump’s proposed National Garden of American Heroes.

There is apprehension, according to a source closely following the projects, that the new members could “rubber stamp” the ballroom and other Trump-envisioned projects.

Executive residence staff will offer a formal presentation of the project to the CFA on February 19 and again on March 19, according to a declaration from Heather Martin, deputy director of the White House office of administration.

Congressional approval? White House says ‘no’

The revelation comes a week before a federal judge in Washington, DC, is set to hold a major hearing in a challenge to Trump’s ballroom project. The nation’s top historic preservation group has asked the judge for an order blocking any further work on the project until it is reviewed by the CFA and approved by both Congress and the NCPC.

US District Judge Richard Leon declined last month to step in on an emergency basis to outright halt construction of the ballroom, but said he was holding the White House to its word that it would submit its plans for the project to the two commissions. He told both sides to answer in writing a series of questions about how past projects on the White House grounds have been handled, including whether previous presidents have sought approval from lawmakers before moving ahead with modifications to the nation’s most famous residence.

The answer to that question, the White House said in its filing Thursday, is “no.”

“From the beginning, Congress has almost exclusively entrusted these renovations to the President’s discretion, as it does expressly to this day,” Justice Department lawyers told the judge.

“Congress recognizes that the President, in his constitutional roles as head of State and commander-in-chief, uniquely understands how the White House can best meet the demands of his singular office,” the Justice Department said.

DOJ urged Leon, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, to fully reject the lawsuit brought in December by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, arguing the group lacked the legal right – known as “standing” – to even pursue the case in the first place because, they say, it hasn’t properly shown how the project is causing a harm that warrants court intervention.

“There is no world in which equity supports ceasing construction mid-stream and holding up a crucial presidential project simply because a non-profit’s member worries she will be offended by the President’s architectural choices if she cranes her neck on periodic strolls by the White House,” the Justice Department attorneys wrote.

Redacted details on subterranean project

Some additional new details about the ballroom project came to light in the court documents, but notably, the filings alluded to a top-secret underground project underneath the East Wing multiple times without providing substantive information on the record.

Officials have said that no above-ground work will happen until at least April, but the underground work is already well underway.

The Justice Department lawyers appeared to reference the underground project in their filing but said that specific details would be provided in a classified manner.

“For reasons described in greater detail in a supplemental classified declaration, an injunction halting construction would endanger national security and therefore impair the public interest,” they said.

Joshua Fisher, a top White House official involved in managing the ballroom project, noted in his sworn declaration that one of the project’s additional goals beyond hosting large-scale White House events was to “(carry) out significant Secret Service upgrades to meet current protection requirements for the president and first family.”

And US Secret Service deputy director Matthew Quinn offered a new sworn declaration expressing additional security concerns about the possibility of halting the project.

Until remaining work on infrastructure and utilities is completed, Quinn said, “Secret Service’s ability to meet its statutory mission of protecting the president, the first family, and the White House complex continues to be hampered.”

Quinn described the open construction site as “a coordinated and managed safety hazard” that “adds additional challenges to Secret Service operations.”

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that Mary Anne Carter is the current chair of the National Endowment for the Arts.

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