Trump loads review panel with loyalists to fast-track controversial White House project

President Donald Trump installed a group of loyalists to a key federal review panel as his administration moves forward with construction on a controversial White House ballroom project that critics say has already caused irreversible damage to the East Wing.

According to a new Washington Post report, Trump recently appointed four allies to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, an independent agency charged by Congress with advising the president on major design projects on Capitol Hill. The commission is scheduled to review the ballroom proposal at a meeting next week.

Among the new appointees are architect James McCrery II, who previously served as Trump’s chief architect, and MAGA art critic Roger Kimball. The president also added two current administration officials to the panel: Mary Anne Carter, chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, and Matthew Taylor, an official at the National Endowment for the Humanities, the White House confirmed.

The Commission of Fine Arts is one of two agencies reviewing the project, alongside the National Capital Planning Commission, which focuses on urban planning, the Post added. The project “would be the most significant change to the White House in decades,” according to the outlet.

While reviews of the project remain pending, construction has already begun on the underground elements of the project, which the White House has insisted is necessary as a matter of national security. Trump, meanwhile, has already purchased marble for the ballroom and has repeatedly touted the project as “under budget and ahead of schedule.”

A hearing in the case is scheduled for January 29 in U.S. District Court in Washington after the administration was hit with a lawsuit last month claiming the project is illegal and asking for a pause to construction until the federal panels complete their reviews.