President Donald Trump has fired all six members of the Commission of Fine Arts, a federal agency that, among other duties, would oversee the design of the new White House ballroom.
The new ballroom is currently being built after the partial demolition of the East Wing last week.
The commissioners were appointed by former President Joe Biden to advise on architectural projects on public land in D.C.
Their terms were set to expire in 2028.
Trump said he will replace them with new members more “aligned” with his policies and goals.
“We are preparing to appoint a new slate of members to the commission that are more aligned with President Trump’s America First Policies,” a White House official said in a statement.
Besides the ballroom, which will be financed by private donors and not with taxpayer dollars, Trump also plans to build an archway in the nation’s capital.
It will be constructed close to the entrance of D.C., across from Arlington National Cemetery.
The commission began in 1910, but its scope has grown since then.
Critics of the East Wing’s demolition have said that Trump didn’t get proper permits for the project.
However, the White House said it wasn’t required to get approval from the National Capital Planning Commission because it didn’t involve new, vertical construction.
The NCPC is now full of Trump allies anyway, so there won’t be opposition when the plans for the ballroom are submitted.
Trump has fired and ousted a number of board members and administrators since taking office.
Clearing out Democrat-aligned officials is one of his strategies to overhaul the deep state that so strongly opposed him during his first term.
So far, the plan has been successful, since the president has been given some latitude over firing federal workers at various agencies.
When these commissioners and board members are working with Trump and not against him, it’s far easier to get things done, and Trump can spend his energy elsewhere, like battling Congress to get his legislative priorities passed.
Trump may have started a trend that will continue, with each successive president from the opposite political party deeply cleaning house after the transfer of power.
While some argue that the deep state provides stability during times when power transitions, there’s no reason why term limits wouldn’t benefit these positions as much as they do the presidency.
Such housecleanings would help the government better reflect the will of the people at a given moment in history, and may help move things along faster than has happened in recent years.
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