The White House has not submitted plans for Donald Trump’s new ballroom to the federal agency that oversees construction of federal buildings, though demolition is already under way.
On Tuesday, the White House told Reuters it intended to send plans to the National Capital Planning Commission, an agency that typically approves and monitors construction on federal buildings. Demolition began earlier this week, with reporters taking video of a backhoe ripping out chunks of the White House’s exterior.
Plans for Trump’s 90,000 sq ft ballroom were made public in the late summer, with Trump saying he would personally fund the $200m construction. “Just another way to spend my money for this construction,” he said at the time.
The New York Times reported Wednesday, citing a senior administration official, that the ballroom plans will mean the demolition of the entire East Wing.
White House officials insist demolition is allowed without the commission’s approval. Will Scharf, the Trump-appointed head of the commission, who is also a White House staff secretary, said in September there was a difference between demolition and rebuilding work, and only the commission can approve new construction.
In a statement to the Guardian, a White House official said: “The National Planning Commission does not require permits for demolition, only for vertical construction. Permits will be submitted to the NPC at the appropriate time.”
But in a letter sent to the White House on Tuesday, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a leading historic preservation non-profit created by Congress, told the White House that demolition plans were “legally required” to go through public review and urged Trump to pause demolition.
“We are deeply concerned that the massing height of the proposed new construction will overwhelm the White House itself – it is 55,000 sq ft – and may also permanently disrupt carefully balanced classical design of the White House with its two smaller, and lower, East and West Wings,” the group said in the letter.
During Trump’s first term, the White House went through the commission to install a new fence, a much smaller project than the construction of the new ballroom.
Amid the backlash over the demolition, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, told Fox News on Tuesday that “there’s a lot of fake outrage out there right now”.
“While many presidents have dreamt about this, it is actually President Trump who is actually doing something about it. And he is the builder-in-chief. In large part, he was re-elected to this people’s house because he is good at building things,” Leavitt said, noting that many presidents had made changes to the White House.
Critics have pointed out that Trump over the summer said new construction would not affect the existing structure.
“It won’t interfere with the current building. It’ll be near it, but not touching it, and [it] pays total respect to the existing building, which I’m the biggest fan of,” Trump said.
On Tuesday night, the late-night host Stephen Colbert pulled up pictures of the White House exterior with gashes from demolition and noted “so that was a lie”.
