Trump’s shutdown strategy? Bulldoze the White House East Wing while National Capital Planning Commission is closed

In a move that has raised eyebrows (not those of any significant Democrats, who are presumably asleep) and sparked legal challenges, President Donald Trump has completed the previously denied demolition of the White House East Wing to make way for a garish new ballroom about which even Napoleon might have told his architect to calm down.

“It won’t interfere with the current building,” he had said at the start. “It will be near it but not touching it. And pays total respect to the existing building, which I’m the biggest fan of.” From 1902 the East Wing has stood as part of the White House complex; it is now all gone.

Trump’s vanity project, estimated at $250 million (curiously, around the same amount as his two formal requests for compensation for allegedly mishandling confidential documents that were dropped off at his Mar-a-Lago bathroom), is being funded entirely by undisclosed private donors and Trump’s personal finances that have expanded untold amounts since the start of his second term.

The East Wing, a historic part of the White House complex, has been partially demolished, with plans to rebuild it as a 90,000-square-foot Downton Abbey-style ballroom capable of hosting up to 900 guests. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has expressed concerns that the proposed ballroom could permanently disrupt the carefully balanced classical design of the White House; Trump has ignored these claims, as one might expect.

The timing of the demolition is curious to say the least, with the most cynical among you potentially even suggesting that it might be entirely deliberate. As we enter a new week of government shutdown, the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC), the body responsible for reviewing federal construction projects in the Washington, D.C. area, remains closed, and has not been able to approve or deny the demolition or construction plans for the ballroom.

Despite the legalities of it, the White House has stated that the project is being funded privately and is therefore not subject to the NCPC’s review process. However, legal experts contend that the NCPC’s approval is required for such significant alterations to federal buildings.

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Some will say the ballroom will look nice alongside the golden Oval Office and the 80s-style parasols sticking out of the concrete floor of the patio that was until recently the famous White House Rose Garden. And by some, I mean Trump, which is all that counts in this new age of the United States.

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