Trump White House ballroom proposal gets approval by Commission of Fine Arts

While Thursday's session was originally intended only for design discussion, Chairman Rodney Mims Cook Jr. moved for an immediate final approval.

"Our sitting president has actually designed a very beautiful structure," Cook said before the vote. "The United States just should not be entertaining the world in tents."

Trump celebrated the vote in a Truth Social post later in the day.

"The Commission of Fine Arts just approved, unanimously, 6 to 0, with one recusal because he had a conflict in that he worked professionally on the job, the White House Ballroom," Trump said. "Great accolades were paid to the building's beauty and scale. Thank you to the members of the Commission!"

Six of the seven commissioners voted in favor. Commissioner James McCrery abstained, having served as the project's architect.

"This is an important thing to the president. It's an important thing to the nation," Fine Arts chairman Rodney Mims Cook Jr. said in the panel's first public hearing on Trump's proposal earlier this month.

Administrations long before Trump's complained about having to host State Dinners and major events in temporary structures. The old East Wing dining room had just a 200-seat capacity, according to the White House, making this expansion more than triple the seats and nearly double the square footage of the main White House structure.

The estimated $400 million project has faced criticism from Democrats, but Trump has vowed the funding to be private and the benefits to be immense.

"We're donating a $400 million ballroom, and we got sued not to build it - for 150 years they've wanted a ballroom," Trump said in December. "And we're giving them, myself and donors are giving them free of charge for nothing. We're donating a building that's approximately $400 million.

"I think I'll do it for less, but it's 400. I should do it for less. I will do it for less, but just in case they say 400; otherwise, if I go $3 over, the press will say it costs more."

Despite Thursday's approval, the project faces further review March 5 by the National Capital Planning Commission, led by a top White House aide.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.