White House East Wing demolition sparks lawsuit to freeze ballroom construction

WASHINGTON (CN) — President Donald Trump’s demolition of the East Wing of the White House to build a $250 million ballroom may face heightened legal scrutiny in the face of a lawsuit seeking its immediate halt filed Thursday.

The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, demands a temporary restraining order to halt any demolition and construction efforts until a public review process by the National Capital Planning Commission can be completed.

Any such order, however, may only be able to freeze construction on the ballroom, as The Washington Post reported around 3 p.m. that the East Wing has been demolished.

The plaintiffs, Charles and Judith Voorhees, claim the Trump administration has violated the National Capital Planning Act of 1952 by refusing to submit the final plans for the construction of a new ballroom to the planning commission.

Further, the administration has violated the National Historic Preservation Act by not identifying and evaluating the historic property, assessing potential impacts on the property and not consulting with the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and the D.C. State Historic Preservation Office to mitigate those impacts.

The government is also meant to obtain review from the Commission of Fine Arts, the Voorheeses say, which reviews and advises on the “design and aesthetics of the exterior modifications” to the White House.

“Defendants are unilaterally decoupling the demolition of the East Wing of the White House from the construction approval process to expedite the project, effectively bypassing the historic preservation and planning reviews required under federal law for a project of this magnitude on a protected national landmark,” the Voorheeses say in their complaint.

The Trump administration has defended plans to construct a 90,000-square-foot ballroom as merely the latest renovation to the “executive mansion,” creating a page on the White House website placing the construction at the end of a timeline that starts with the initial designing and construction under President John Adams.

While the timeline lists events such as the White House’s reconstruction following the War of 1812, the additions of the south and north porticos, Harry Truman’s “total reconstruction” of the building’s interior, it also includes certain “scandals” that occurred under recent Democratic administrations.

They include President Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky, President Barack Obama’s meeting with members of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood in 2012 following the presidential election of its candidate Mohamed Morsi, the discovery of cocaine in the White House in July 2023 which conservatives have claimed without evidence belonged to President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, and a Transgender Day of Visibility event in 2024.

Speaking to reporters Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the planning commission has held it does not have oversight over demolition projects and thus the White House did not need to submit those plans for review. She said that only “vertical construction” required the commission’s review.

“There have been many presidents in the past who have made their mark on this beautiful White House complex,” Leavitt said, noting that the Brady Press Briefing Room was once a swimming pool at the White House.

Carol Quillen, president and CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, sent a letter to the commission, expressing concern that the ballroom will “overwhelm the White House itself” and disrupt its “carefully balanced classical design.”

“We respectfully urge the administration and the National Park Service to pause demolition until plans for the proposed ballroom go through the legally required public review process, including consultation and review by the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts, both of which have authority to review new construction at the White House, and to invite comments from the American people,” Quillen said in a statement.

Mark Denicore, of Cynergy Consulting and representing the Voorheeses, lamented the lawsuit’s timing in an email to Courthouse News.

“Unfortunately, it looks like my efforts were too little and too late,” Denicore said.

He did not provide additional information about the Voorheeses to clarify their standing to sue.

In an email to Courthouse News, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle defended the president’s project, but would not comment on whether the administration would wait for or comply with a public review of construction plans.

“President Trump has full legal authority to modernize, renovate and beautify the White House — just like all of his predecessors did,” Ingle said.

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