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Trump Is Digging Up Washington. Can Lawsuits Stop the Bulldozers?
As the president develops plans to fundamentally alter the White House, the Kennedy Center and other sites, federal lawsuits are beginning to catch up.
A coalition of eight prominent cultural and architectural preservation organizations filed a new lawsuit on Monday challenging President Trump’s emerging vision for the Kennedy Center. Eric Lee for The New York Times
By Zach Montague
Reporting from Washington
March 23, 2026, 9:34 a.m. ET
It took an act of Congress to create the John F. Kennedy Performing Arts Center. It may take two federal lawsuits to stop President Trump from remaking it with his name attached. ... There is no guarantee that either lawsuit will succeed, nor three others challenging Mr. Trump’s plans to build a championship-level golf course in the nation’s capital, erect a 250-foot arch next to the Arlington National Cemetery and append a ballroom to the White House.
In his second term, President Trump has returned to his identity as a real estate developer, teeing up pet construction projects and monuments to himself among, and sometimes on top of, other historic sites in Washington’s crowded landscape. ... Now, legal challenges are mounting to try to stop the bulldozers, forcing federal judges to reckon with novel questions about the president’s power to unilaterally control the federal government’s real estate portfolio. It will be for the judiciary to decide what authority Congress holds over federal land and institutions and whether the president can invite allies instead of taxpayers to finance his projects.
David A. Super, a professor at Georgetown’s law school, said the law is not clear in every instance, and Mr. Trump has been quick to exploit that, “filling in gaps, addressing things that Congress hasn’t spoken to.” ... “But with many of these things, and above all, the Kennedy Center,” he added, “Congress has been quite specific and quite directive about what it is, and he’s simply ignoring that.” ... Ultimately, he said, the question is the extent to which the president can act alone, given that the Constitution grants Congress the role of disposing of and regulating federal holdings. ... On Monday, a coalition of eight prominent cultural and architectural preservation organizations filed a new lawsuit challenging Mr. Trump’s emerging vision for the Kennedy Center.
{snip}
On Tuesday, Thaddeus Heuer, a lawyer representing the National Trust, told Judge Leon that the Trump administration has had every opportunity to consult lawmakers about his projects but had instead chosen to proceed on its own. ... “They have forgotten the proverbial first law of holes,” he said. “When you find yourself in one, stop digging.”
Zach Montague is a Times reporter covering the federal courts, including the legal disputes over the Trump administration’s agenda.
As the president develops plans to fundamentally alter the White House, the Kennedy Center and other sites, federal lawsuits are beginning to catch up.
A coalition of eight prominent cultural and architectural preservation organizations filed a new lawsuit on Monday challenging President Trump’s emerging vision for the Kennedy Center. Eric Lee for The New York Times
By Zach Montague
Reporting from Washington
March 23, 2026, 9:34 a.m. ET
It took an act of Congress to create the John F. Kennedy Performing Arts Center. It may take two federal lawsuits to stop President Trump from remaking it with his name attached. ... There is no guarantee that either lawsuit will succeed, nor three others challenging Mr. Trump’s plans to build a championship-level golf course in the nation’s capital, erect a 250-foot arch next to the Arlington National Cemetery and append a ballroom to the White House.
In his second term, President Trump has returned to his identity as a real estate developer, teeing up pet construction projects and monuments to himself among, and sometimes on top of, other historic sites in Washington’s crowded landscape. ... Now, legal challenges are mounting to try to stop the bulldozers, forcing federal judges to reckon with novel questions about the president’s power to unilaterally control the federal government’s real estate portfolio. It will be for the judiciary to decide what authority Congress holds over federal land and institutions and whether the president can invite allies instead of taxpayers to finance his projects.
David A. Super, a professor at Georgetown’s law school, said the law is not clear in every instance, and Mr. Trump has been quick to exploit that, “filling in gaps, addressing things that Congress hasn’t spoken to.” ... “But with many of these things, and above all, the Kennedy Center,” he added, “Congress has been quite specific and quite directive about what it is, and he’s simply ignoring that.” ... Ultimately, he said, the question is the extent to which the president can act alone, given that the Constitution grants Congress the role of disposing of and regulating federal holdings. ... On Monday, a coalition of eight prominent cultural and architectural preservation organizations filed a new lawsuit challenging Mr. Trump’s emerging vision for the Kennedy Center.
{snip}
On Tuesday, Thaddeus Heuer, a lawyer representing the National Trust, told Judge Leon that the Trump administration has had every opportunity to consult lawmakers about his projects but had instead chosen to proceed on its own. ... “They have forgotten the proverbial first law of holes,” he said. “When you find yourself in one, stop digging.”
Zach Montague is a Times reporter covering the federal courts, including the legal disputes over the Trump administration’s agenda.
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