Trump Appoints Unqualified Lackey to Fine Arts Commission to Rubberstamp the Corruption-Ridden Trump Ballroom

One of Donald Trump’s top obsessions is building himself a grandiose gilded ballroom. The whole project has been a cesspool of corruption, in which donors have failed to disclose themselves as required by law, and Trump has pushed it through by gutting the panels that are supposed to review new construction, filling them with unqualified lackeys.

The Washington Post reports:

When Congress created the Commission of Fine Arts more than a century ago, its members were intended to be “well-qualified judges of the fine arts” who would review and advise on major design projects in the nation’s capital, lawmakers wrote. The initial slate of commissioners included Daniel Burnham and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., architects and urban planners who designed much of Washington.

Now, the 116-year-old commission is set to include its newest, youngest member: Chamberlain Harris, a 26-year-old White House aide and a longtime executive assistant for President Donald Trump, who is slated to be sworn in at the panel’s next public meeting on Thursday. …

Trump’s selection of Harris—who was known as the “receptionist of the United States” during the president’s first term and has no notable arts expertise — comes amid the president’s push to install allies on the arts commission and another panel, the National Capital Planning Commission. Both commissions are reviewing Trump’s planned White House ballroom and are expected to review his other Washington-area construction projects, such as his desired 250-foot triumphal arch. …

Asked about Harris’s qualifications to serve on the fine arts commission, the White House on Tuesday touted her as a “loyal, trusted, and highly respected advisor” to the president.

This is a microcosm of Trump’s approach to government, in which personal loyalty to him is the only qualification that matters. This is how he is setting out to undermine any independent institution meant to assert the American people’s ownership of the White House—or of anything else in our government.

The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.

© The UnPopulist, 2026

Follow us on Bluesky, Threads, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and X.