New Actor: National Trust sues to halt East Wing demolition

A lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeks a temporary restraining order to halt President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project. Plaintiffs Charles and Judith Voorhees say the administration skipped legally required public reviews by failing to submit final plans to the National Capital Planning Commission and by not obtaining input from the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the D.C. State Historic Preservation Office, or the Commission of Fine Arts.

The complaint cites the National Capital Planning Act of 1952 and the National Historic Preservation Act and asks the court to pause work until the planning commission completes its review. By Thursday afternoon the East Wing had already been demolished, which could limit any order to freezing the ballroom build and related construction.

The White House maintains that demolition does not require commission oversight and that only new “vertical construction” needs approval. The National Historic Preservation Act exempts the White House, complicating preservation claims, while the 1952 planning law still requires review of new construction by the National Capital Planning Commission.

AI-synthesized from multiple reported sources