White House hasn’t filed plans for Trump’s new ballroom despite demolition under way | Donald Trump

The White House has not submitted plans for Donald Trump’s new ballroom to the federal agency that oversees the construction of federal buildings, although demolition is already underway.

On Tuesday, the White House told Reuters it intended to send plans to the National Capital Planning Commission, an agency that generally approves and oversees the construction of federal buildings. The demolition began earlier this week, with reporters filming a backhoe tearing off pieces of the White House exterior.

Plans for Trump’s 90,000-square-foot ballroom were made public in late summer, with Trump saying he would personally finance the $200 million construction. “Just another way to spend my money on this build,” he said at the time.

White House officials insist the demolition is permitted without commission approval. Will Scharf, the Trump-appointed head of the commission and also White House secretary, said in September that there was a difference between demolition and reconstruction work, and that the commission could only approve new construction.

But in a letter sent to the White House on Tuesday, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a historic preservation nonprofit created by Congress, told the White House that demolition plans are “legally required” to go through public review and urged Trump to halt the demolition.

“We are deeply concerned that the height of the proposed new construction will overwhelm the White House itself – it is 55,000 square feet – and could also permanently disrupt the carefully balanced classic design of the White House with its two smaller, lower east and west wings,” the group said in the letter.

During Trump’s first term, the White House asked the Commission to install a new fence, a much smaller project than building the new ballroom.

Amid backlash over the demolition, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, told Fox News on Tuesday that “there’s a lot of fake outrage right now.”

“While many presidents have dreamed of it, it’s actually President Trump who is doing something. And he’s the builder in chief. In large part, he got re-elected to the People’s House because he’s good at building things,” Leavitt said, noting that many presidents have made changes in the White House.

Critics point out that Trump said this summer that new construction would not impact the existing structure.

“It will not interfere with the current building. It will be close, but not touching, and will completely respect the existing building, which I am the biggest fan of,” Trump said.

On Tuesday night, late-night host Stephen Colbert posted photos of the exterior of the White House with dents from the demolition and noted “so that was a lie.”