The Trump administration is aiming to move a planned 90,000-square-foot White House ballroom through the federal government’s review process at a rapid clip, with final approvals as soon as early March — potentially clearing the way for construction to start a month later.President Trump has sought to move quickly on the ballroom project, which is the most ambitious — and controversial — part of his push to transform the White House complex in line with his aesthetic vision. But the $400 million donor-funded project still needs to get approvals from two boards that oversee federal construction in Washington, D.C.: the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) and the Commission of Fine Arts (CFA).Administration officials met with the two boards and presented drawings on Dec. 19, and formally submitted applications three days later, a White House official told CBS News.The administration is aiming to hold a public informational meeting before the NCPC next week, on Jan. 8, with a meeting before the CFA one week later. Final presentations to the CFA and NCPC are slated for Feb. 19 and March 5, respectively, the official said.The National Park Service said in a court filing last month that above-grade construction is “not anticipated to begin until April 2026, at the earliest.” Construction is expected to wrap up in the summer of 2028, less than a year before Mr. Trump leaves office, according to a National Park Service assessment filed in court last month.The Washington Post was first to report the timing of NCPC and CFA approvals.CBS News has reached out to the NCPC and CFA for comment.The dates of the NCPC and CFA meetings could shift somewhat. But the administration’s timeline for the ballroom is extremely aggressive by the standards of the federal government, which often takes months or years to secure approvals for far smaller projects.It took several years to design, approve and build a new perimeter fence on the White House grounds during the Obama and first Trump administrations. Officials formally asked the NCPC to review the fencing project concept in June 2016, and the board eventually greenlit the plans in February 2017. Construction on the fence began in 2019.Approvals took even longer for a pricy project to renovate the Federal Reserve’s headquarters, with seven public meetings before the NCPC between September 2019 and March 2021. The commission approved the project in September 2021, and construction is still ongoing.The NCPC is chaired by White House aide William Scharf, and two other Trump appointees currently serve on the commission. Mr. Trump fired all six sitting members of the CFA in October and is expected to appoint a slate of new members shortly.Plans for the ballroom have come together at a rapid pace. The White House first announced the project in July. By October, construction crews had demolished the building’s entire East Wing, though Mr. Trump said months earlier that the existing structure would be left intact.At a mid-October dinner to recognize private donors to the ballroom, Mr. Trump marveled at how quickly he was able to get the project off the ground.”They said, ‘Sir, you can start tonight,” the president told guests, recounting conversations with staff about the ballroom. “‘You have zero zoning conditions. You’re the president.'”That approach has drawn criticism from congressional Democrats and preservation groups, who argue the administration failed to properly engage with the public before taking a wrecking ball to part of the White House complex. The White House has argued that NCPC approval is only required for vertical construction, not demolition.The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued over the project late last year, seeking a temporary halt to construction work until the government gets any necessary approvals. The group has criticized the administration for tearing down the East Wing without seeking reviews and argued the ballroom’s size “will overwhelm the White House itself.””The American people own these places. And we, the American people, have a right to weigh in when significant changes to them are proposed,” Carol Quillen, president and CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, said in an interview with CBS News last month. “This project needs to follow the already legally mandated processes.”A judge last month declined to pause construction outright, but said the administration had to engage the NCPC by the end of 2025. Further hearings on the Trust’s request for a preliminary injunction are set for later this month. The judge told the government that if it does any underground construction that “dictates the size or scale of the proposed ballroom” before he has a chance to rule, the government “should be prepared to take it down.”At a White House event shortly after the ruling, Mr. Trump celebrated the judge’s order and said “we didn’t want to be held up.” “Who else but in our country would sue to stop a $400 million beautiful ballroom that people have been after for the White House?” the president said.
