Trump plows past concerns over East Wing demolition — and envisions an even bigger ballroom than initially planned

By Kevin Liptak, Kristen Holmes, Kaitlan Collins, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump has proceeded with enormous latitude as he constructs his massive new ballroom, bypassing concerns raised by preservationists and so far stopping short of seeking approval from the commission overseeing construction on federal buildings to tear down the entirety of the White House East Wing.

The ballroom is now expected to be larger than initially planned, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. The president has shown visitors two flat tabletop models, at times quizzing the room on which version they preferred: the smaller one or the larger one. Most answered that the bigger one was better, to which Trump agreed.

While it’s not clear how much larger, Trump did say Wednesday that the ballroom is expected to cost a projected $300 million, seemingly in line with a larger structure. Previously, the administration had put the cost at $200 million.

The project has drawn outcry and led to questions about whether the president was within his legal authority to dismantle entire sections of the executive mansion. Not all of Trump’s own team was set on the project at the start, one source familiar with the internal conversations told CNN. At the beginning, some aides and advisers thought it was too big of a task to undertake, and attempted to explain how difficult and lengthy the process was likely to be. But once it became clear the president wasn’t going to give up on the idea — which he’s been musing about for the better part of 15 years — everyone quickly got onboard.

The White House says it will submit plans for the ballroom construction to the National Capital Planning Commission, but insists the body doesn’t have purview over the decision to knock down the East Wing.

Some former members of the panel have questioned that assessment. And one of the nation’s premier historic preservation organizations is calling for an immediate halt to the leveling of the East Wing.

But there appeared little standing in the way of the president’s decision to move ahead with the audacious, multi-year project. Now the demolition is well underway, it seemed unlikely the plans would be reversed.

“In order to do it properly, we had to take down the existing structure,” Trump said Wednesday in the Oval Office when questioned about the project. A scale model of the White House grounds — with the ballroom prominently jutting out from the East Colonnade — sat on the table in front of him.

He said after a “tremendous amount of study with some of the best architects in the world,” the determination was made of the East Wing that “really knocking it down” would be necessary.

“It was never thought of as being much,” he said. “It was a very small building.”

On Wednesday, track excavators continued their work ripping into the former home of the office of the first lady, the White House calligrapher and some military aides. The demolition was proceeding quickly, with roughly half the structure now reduced to a grey pile of cement and twisted rebar. Staffers in those departments have been relocated to other areas on the complex.

The East Wing’s wood-paneled foyer has long been the main point of entry for visitors attending social events at the White House, as well as those going on tours of the building. The section emerged in its current form in 1942.

The rest of the East Wing is likely to be demolished by the end of the week, officials said.

In some ways, the cries of disapproval are coming too late. Renderings released by the White House in July showed the ballroom sitting atop where the East Wing used to sit, and an official press release at the time stated it would sit “where the small, heavily changed, and reconstructed East Wing currently sits.”

Trump said anyone outraged or concerned he was taking steps without being frank about his intentions were misplaced.

“I haven’t been transparent? I’ve shown this to everybody that would listen,” he said in the Oval Office.

Still, images of the building torn to pieces this week have caused shock, particularly as Trump tests his authority in nearly all aspects of the presidency — not least of which is the building he lives and works in.

The project began ramping up over the summer, one source said, and weekly meetings to discuss the project began. The president himself has been involved in these meetings, which also have included Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, the White House Military Office, the Secret Service, an architecture team and other staffers internally who have been tasked with helping move the project along quickly, the source said.

The White House said in late July that McCrery Architects and its CEO James McCrery would take the lead in the design of the addition. A few days later, McCrery was spotted alongside Trump on the White House roof surveying the area on the South Grounds where the ballroom will go.

Trump’s aides were prepared for pushback on the ballroom and sought to review what was legally required to complete the project, the source said.

Ultimately, administration officials determined the White House would only need approval from the National Capital Planning Commission, which oversees federal construction projects in Washington and its neighboring states, Virginia and Maryland. But officials said the commission has jurisdiction only when “vertical” construction begins, and does not oversee demolition.

Trump recently appointed White House staff secretary and loyalist Will Scharf to chair the commission. White House deputy Chief of Staff James Blair and another Trump aide were also appointed to the commission at the same time.

Scharf said during a meeting of the commission last month the body would eventually be involved in the project, but not until after the East Wing was demolished.

“I know the president thinks very highly of this commission, and I’m excited for us to play a role in the ballroom project when the time is appropriate for us to do so,” he said.

The commission, which is closed amid the ongoing government shutdown, was created by Congress in 1924 and is comprised of 12 members. Three are appointed by the president, along with the chairman, with the rest of the seats reserved for federal agencies, such as the National Park Service, and representatives from the District of Columbia.

Projects reviewed by the NCPC in recent years include changing the perimeter fence around the White House grounds and a tennis pavilion Trump installed during his first term. The fence, in particular, took several years before it was ultimately approved; officials said it was a necessary change because people kept jumping over the previous one and running toward the North Portico.

L. Preston Bryant Jr., who served as chairman of the NCPC for nearly a decade, described a three-stage process that typically unfolds for federal projects, beginning with early consultations that he described as collaborative.

“The Commission staff very much wants a potential project to get started on the right foot. This early consultation stage is very important,” he told CNN.

The project goes through subsequent phases — conceptional, preliminary approval and final approval — before the process is complete.

Bryant said he couldn’t remember a time when demolition was separated from the approval process in the way the Trump White House has done.

“That was not my experience during my time at NCPC,” Bryant said. “If there’s to be demolition, that’s part of the project. The demolition element is inherent in the overall project. Demo is not separated from construction. It’s part of it.”

Rebecca Miller, the executive director of the DC Preservation League, said demolishing the East Wing before a formal submission of the ballroom plans essentially starts the project before a formal review process.

“Most concerning is that they’re just tearing down the East Wing without any public submission as to what is going to be built in its place,” she said. “And that’s where the National Capital Planning Commission, or the Commission on Fine Arts, or the public, would have their input into the design of the property, its compatibility with the White House, and how to mitigate or minimize the impact on the current historic resource.”

“We’re in this kind of zone where there’s nothing that prevents the demolition, but we’ve also not seen what the submission is,” Miller added.

Other laws and rules also appear not to apply to the White House. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966, which details the process by which stakeholders should be brought in for large public projects. But the law excludes the three pillars of US government – the Capitol, the Supreme Court and the White House — from its provisions.

The Shipstead-Luce Act of 1930 also requires that alterations to buildings in the national capital area, including the White House, must be presented to the Commission of Fine Arts. The language, however, refers to buildings facing the White House and not the White House itself.

For Trump, the concerns about the new ballroom appear unconvincing. Sitting in the newly gilded Oval Office as the machines were working away outside, he held up a pile of paper renderings showing the plans, including the Louis XIV-style interior that closely resembles the ballroom at Mar-a-Lago.

“You see it goes beautifully with the White House,” Trump proclaimed. “I mean, the mix is beautiful.”

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Zachary B. Wolf contributed to this report.