A piece of history, the East Wing, is a pile of rubble and neither the public nor the National Capital Planning Commission, who review White House construction and renovations, have seen architectural blueprints. President Donald Trump circumvented the Federal Preservation Law mandate for the commission’s review by appointing his White House staff secretary to chair the commission, who stated that there’s no need for a demolition or site preparation permit, only for construction.
The White House and grounds became an official national park in 1961 and belong to the American people. Alteration to the White House is illegal without approval from the National Park Service and National Capital Planning Commission. The sense of invincibility and hubris with this project is a metaphor of how the Trump Administration is dismantling our democracy.
If the White House belongs to the people, will the East Wing belong to donors? For decades, corporations have made great effort to control our country through campaign donations and lobbying. It’s estimated that donors have received approximately $279 billion in government contracts. Alleged federal offenses are tied to many, and Amazon and Apple have had claims of workers’ violations withdrawn during Trump’s second term. The East Wing donors exemplify the connection between wealth and power as billions are being laid out to weaken regulation, ignore enforcement, and curry favor with the Trump Administration.
The current administration has empowered long-desired corporate control by disbanding the National Security Division’s Corporate Enforcement Unit, which investigated the overlap of corporate crime and national security, such as sanction evasions and export control violations. The KleptoCapture Task Force, which oversaw money laundering and business misconducts, was eliminated. Trump conveniently fired the head of the Office of Special Counsel who enforced the Hatch Act, and the Office of Government Ethics that oversaw conflicts of interest. The best gift was the suspension of the Corporate Transparency Act, which was an important tool to control corporate secrecy and corruption. Our complacent Congress ignores these donors’ egregious conflicts of interest who are paying off past offenses or making a down payment for future favors.
The end result is not a ballroom but the deterioration of democracy and the exploitation of our country by the wealthy without winning an election or being accountable.
Evelyn Gallegos
Brighton
