Mr. Trump paved over the Rose Garden’s lawn without seeking approvals. He has installed a 13-foot statue of Christopher Columbus on White House grounds without submitting a plan to any panel. And, most prominently, he tore down the historic East Wing of the White House without consulting any oversight board.
Tim Whitehouse, the executive director of the watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said the renovations in the capital have “become a secretive project where the friends and business associates of the president are being rewarded with no public scrutiny.”