White House ballroom vote delayed amid deluge of angry public comments [View all]

Source: USA Today

White House ballroom vote delayed amid deluge of angry public comments

Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy
USA TODAY
March 4, 2026 Updated March 5, 2026, 3:51 p.m. ET

A vote on President Donald Trump's plans for a $400 million White House ballroom was rescheduled after a commission in charge of deciding the project was deluged with more than 35,000 written comments and 104 people wanting to testify at a public hearing.

Will Scharf, chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission who was appointed by Trump, said at the public hearing on March 5 that the vote would be taken at the commission's next meeting on April 2 to accommodate every member of the public who had signed up for a chance to speak. The NCPC, the overseer of federal property development and site designs, continued to hold the online public hearing on March 5 to hear from droves of people − most of them with negative opinion − signed up to speak or reached out via email.

Stephen Staudigl, spokesperson for the NCPC, told USA TODAY that the vast majority of responses received via email have expressed negative opinions about the ballroom, and a USA TODAY cursory review found many angry responses, calling the ballroom idea gaudy, expensive, aggrandizing and unnecessary.

The commission's public meeting offered a window into the public's view of the project, which led to the demolition of the White House's East Wing. Apart from Scharf, the White House staff secretary, the 12-member commission board also includes two other White House officials.

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Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/03/04/white-house-ballroom-vote-delayed-amid-deluge-of-angry-public-comments/88983464007/