WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has appointed four new members to the Commission of Fine Arts, the independent agency set to review his plans for a large new White House ballroom. Among the appointees is the architect who provided the initial designs for the ballroom.

Trump has selected Mary Anne Carter, who leads the National Endowment for the Arts and is an ally of Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff; Roger Kimball, an art critic and conservative writer who has lavished praise on the president; and Matthew Taylor, according to a White House official.

Trump has also chosen to appoint James McCrery, the first architect on the ballroom project.

Trump’s expanding vision for the project caused some tension with McCrery, who took a step back last year as the main architect. But he remains a consultant on the project, and he and Trump are still on good terms, a White House official said.

After the surprise demolition of the White House’s East Wing last year, Trump has pushed to construct a ballroom in its place with as few obstacles as possible.

The president fired all six members of the Commission of Fine Arts in October, promising to appoint new ones who shared Trump’s “America First” agenda. The commission is a federal agency that advises the government on design matters.

The panel is set to review the ballroom project once the new members are seated.

The administration has been under legal pressure from historic preservationists to submit the new ballroom project to a formal review process.

A federal judge has allowed the project to proceed because of the administration’s pledges to undergo review.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Luke Broadwater/Doug Mills
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