President Donald Trump spent roughly 15 minutes of a cabinet meeting on Thursday complaining about lawsuits filed by a historic preservation group against his administration's plans for the Kennedy Center and a White House ballroom. He also criticised the Justice Department for failing to prosecute Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell over renovations at the central bank's headquarters.
Trump claimed the Kennedy Center renovation would be 'under budget, ahead of schedule' and compared it unfavourably to the long-running rehab of the nearly century-old Federal Reserve building. He then pivoted to air grievances about the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a congressionally chartered nonprofit that has filed multiple lawsuits to block construction of his planned White House ballroom after he ordered the historic East Wing demolished last autumn.
'Everything I do, I get sued. Under budget, ahead of schedule, I get sued over a ballroom that's going to be the most beautiful ballroom in the country ... we get sued by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. They don't know what they're doing,' he said. He also complained about litigation over the Kennedy Center project, suggesting the lawsuit was only attributable to the centre's board, which he appointed after sacking the previous leadership.
Trump then attacked the Federal Reserve renovation and Chairman Jerome Powell, with whom he has feuded over interest rates. He groused that the preservation group had not sued Powell over the rehab and accused the chairman of suffering from 'Trump Derangement Syndrome.' The president's comments come just days after newly-released court records showed the Justice Department's probe into the $2.5 billion renovation project at the Federal Reserve found no evidence of a crime.
