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By Khaleda Rahman
National Correspondent
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President Donald Trump has appointed a 26-year-old aide to the panel reviewing plans for his $400-million White House ballroom.
Chamberlain Harris, a longtime executive assistant to the president, was among those recently appointed to the Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) to serve four-year terms.
Harris is set to be sworn in at the panel’s next public meeting on Thursday, despite having no notable arts experience, The Washington Post reported.
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Newsweek has contacted the White House via an email sent outside regular business hours for comment.
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Why It Matters
The CFA is an independent federal agency charged with giving expert advice to the president, Congress as well as the federal and District of Columbia governments on “matters of design and esthetics” in the nation’s capital. According to its website, the commission is composed of experts “in relevant disciplines including art, architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design.”
Harris’ appointment comes as Trump has pushed to install his allies on the CFA and the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC). Both are reviewing plans for Trump’s White House ballroom and are expected to review his other construction projects, including his plans to build an arch near the Lincoln Memorial.
The ballroom project has garnered heavy criticism from historians, Democrats and voters after Trump rapidly demolished the East Wing to make way for it in October with little advance notice.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has sued to halt construction of the ballroom, accusing the Trump administration of violating federal laws by starting the project before submitting it for independent reviews by the commissions and Congress, as well as the public.
What To Know
Harris is the deputy director of Oval Office operations at the White House, according to her page on the CFA’s website.
She received a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University at Albany, SUNY, in 2019, with minors in communications and economics, according to an archived copy of her LinkedIn page.
She was a White House intern in late 2019 before starting as an assistant in the Trump White House’s Office of Administration in 2020, according to the page. She became the “receptionist of the United States” in September 2020 and continued working for Trump as an executive assistant when he left office in early 2021.
According to the CFA’s page on Harris, she managed Trump’s Presidential Portrait Project in conjunction with the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution and the White House Historical Association.
Harris was one of seven people appointed to the CFA in January. Trump fired all six commissioners on the panel in October after the East Wing was torn down.
White House communications director Steven Cheung told the Post that Harris “understands the president’s vision and appreciation of the arts like very few others” when asked about her qualifications to serve on the CFA.
But former members of the panel told the newspaper that she appears to have less previous arts experience than anyone in the panel’s history.
What People Are Saying
White House communications director Steven Cheung told The Washington Post: “She understands the president’s vision and appreciation of the arts like very few others, and brings a unique perspective that will serve the commission well.
"She will be a tremendous asset to the Commission of Fine Arts and continue to honorably serve our country well.”
Alex Krieger, an architect and professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design who served on the panel from 2012 until 2021, told the Post: “It’s disastrous. Some of these people just have no qualifications to evaluate matters of design, architecture, or urban planning.”
What Happens Next
The CFA’s next public meeting will take place on Zoom from 9 a.m. on Thursday.
Harris is set to be sworn in at the start of the meeting, according to its agenda. The commission is set to review the latest designs for the White House ballroom during the session.
The White House said it hopes to win approval from both the CFA and the NCPC by March and begin above-ground construction as soon as April.
Meanwhile, the judge overseeing the lawsuit filed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation is expected to rule on whether to issue a preliminary injunction in the case soon.
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