Donald Trump has quietly appointed four new members to the Commission of Fine Arts, one of two federal panels tasked with reviewing his ambitious plans for a White House ballroom.
The Republican president has long championed the construction of the proposed 90,000-square-foot (8,400-square-meter) addition, which would permanently alter the mansion’s public facade and stand as a lasting legacy.
Among the new appointees is James McCrery, an architect who previously led the now $400m ballroom project until Donald Trump replaced him late last year. The White House has indicated that the project would be funded by private donations, including from Trump himself, and the East Wing has already been demolished to create space for the new structure.
The appointments were revealed in court papers filed on Thursday by a White House official, forming part of a lawsuit initiated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The organization is seeking to halt construction until both the fine arts panel and a second federal commission grant their approval. The White House did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.
The new appointments would give the Commission of Fine Arts a quorum, or enough members to conduct business at a meeting scheduled for Jan. 22, where consideration of what is being called the East Wing Modernization project is on the agenda. The panel had been scheduled to meet this past week, but could not due to the lack of new members.
The commission did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
The panel normally has seven members, but has been unable to meet for months. Trump dismissed six commissioners last fall after the East Wing was torn down. A seventh commissioner, who was the panel’s chair, had earlier resigned after Trump took office last year because their term had expired.
The White House is tentatively scheduled to formally present the project to the commission on Feb. 19 and March 19, at which time the panel could complete its review, Heather Martin, a deputy assistant to the president, said in the court papers.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has accused the Trump administration of violating federal laws by starting the project before submitting it for independent reviews by the commissions and Congress, as well as the public.
Aside from architect McCrery, who had served on the commission as a Trump appointee from 2019-2024, the commission will include Mary Anne Carter of Tennessee; Roger Kimball of Connecticut; and Matthew Taylor of Washington, D.C.
Carter is chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, a position she also held during Trump’s first term. She is a former staffer to Rick Scott, a former governor of Florida and current U.S. senator from the state. Kimball is an art critic and conservative commentator.
The National Capital Planning Commission, the second federal panel with oversight of construction on federal land, including the White House grounds, heard an initial presentation about the ballroom at its meeting on Jan. 8.
