'You Have Zero Zoning' Rules. 'You're the President'

A Wall Street Journal story about President Trump's fast-moving plans to build a White House ballroom reports that the idea goes back further than you might think: Former Obama adviser David Axelrod tells the newspaper that Trump called him back in early 2010.

• "He said, 'You have these state dinners in sh—y little tents," Axelrod recalled. "He said, 'I build ballrooms. I build the most beautiful ballrooms in the world. You can come to Florida and see for yourself.'" A skeptical Axelrod told Trump to call President Obama's social secretary, and the idea never took off.
• In a follow-up interview with Axios, Axelrod added that Trump "described this as a modular ballroom, which you could assemble and disassemble. There was no talk of demolishing the East Wing."

The Journal story reports that Trump floated the idea anew during his first term, but it again went nowhere. This time around, Trump moved fast: He had the East Wing demolished in days, bypassing the usual bureaucratic hurdles that stall most construction projects in Washington. One key factor: He fired three Biden-appointed members of the National Capital Planning Commission—a little-known board with big sway over federal projects—and replaced them with loyalists. The story ends with an anecdote about Trump telling donors to the ballroom that even he was surprised at how easy it all was.

• "'You have zero zoning conditions. You're the president,'" he recalled being told about the project. "I said, 'You got to be kidding.'" Read the full story.