Trump appointees ask about White House ballroom’s design and scale — and want to see models

By BILL BARROW, Associated Press

Some of Donald Trump’s handpicked appointees who have a say in his White House ballroom project asked questions Thursday about its “immense” design and scale, even as they broadly endorsed the president’s vision for a massive expansion.

The Commission on Fine Arts discussion, which also included a brief review of mostly negative public comments on Trump’s plans, revealed no immediate threat to Trump’s overall idea, which historic preservationists are separately asking a federal court to slow down. But it demonstrated the sensitivity and political controversy involved since the president approved the demolition of the East Wing after unveiling designs that would more than double the square footage of the White House as it was before.

“This is an important thing to the president. It’s an important thing to the nation,” said the new Fine Arts chairman, Rodney Mims Cook Jr., in the panel’s first public hearing on Trump’s proposal...