Donald Trump Took a Wrecking Ball to the White House. The Next President Must Do the Same by John Avlon

 

 Source: Rolling Stone

 

The Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling allows the president to continue his demolition project of the East Wing, which is now “beyond the point of return.” The next president must vow to restore the People’s House to what it was before Trump

Donald Trump has literally taken a wrecking ball to the White House — and U.S. courts seem helpless to stop him.

The East Wing was destroyed without civic debate or congressional approval — and is now in the process of being replaced by a 90,000-square-foot luxury ballroom that is double the size of the current White House complex.

That is an insult to the rule of law, to American history, and to every U.S. citizen — because the White House ultimately belongs to us, not its current temporary occupant.

If you don’t believe this is a dangerous precedent, get your head around this: The Trump administration’s Department of Justice lawyers even argued in court that a president could order the Statue of Liberty demolished and there would be functionally nothing anyone could do about it because the courts would move too slowly to stop him.

The Supreme Court just proved them right. Chief Justice John Roberts joined the three Democratic-appointed justices in trying to halt the destruction of the East Wing. Roberts wrote that the construction is likely unlawful because Congress never approved it.

He’s got the facts on his side. The Constitution gives Congress the power to make all rules respecting “property belonging to the United States.” For two centuries the White House has been renovated and maintained through congressional authorization and appropriation. Alteration and improvement of the executive residence has never meant unilateral demolition.

But in an assault on precedent, Roberts and the Democratic justices were outvoted by the other five Republican court appointees, who, in an unsigned order, said nothing about whether the project was legal. They said only that the National Trust for Historic Preservation likely lacked standing to sue.

So who does have standing if they don’t? The answer should be “any American citizen.” This is our history and our legacy. There are laws to ensure that no president can act like a king and destroy historic public property on a whim. 

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