The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts approved the proposal to develop a ballroom where the East Wing once stood.
According to a report from the Associated Press, the vote on the design was originally scheduled for a different date, although the panel’s chairman, Rodney Mims Cook Jr., made a motion to vote on its final approval.
“Our sitting president has actually designed a very beautiful structure,” Cook said, as per the report. “The United States just should not be entertaining the world in tents.”
President Trump celebrated the decision in a statement on Truth Social. “The Commission of Fine Arts just approved, 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 wrote. “Great accolades were paid to the building’s beauty and scale. Thank you to the members of the Commission!”
Plans for the ballroom were announced last year. The White House is “currently unable to host major functions honoring world leaders and other countries,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said at the time. The project will add an estimated 90,000 square feet of space and will be capable of seating 650 people.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States filed a lawsuit against the project, arguing that a president is not “legally allowed to tear down portions of the White House without any review whatsoever — not President Trump, not President Biden, and not anyone else.”
President Trump asked of the lawsuit, “Why didn’t these obstructionists and troublemakers bring their baseless lawsuit much earlier? Congress never tried, or wanted, to stop the Ballroom Project! Everyone knew what was taking place at the White House — A great, big, beautiful gift to the United States of America!”
