Build First, Ask Questions Later: Trump’s Ballroom Puts Supreme Court in a Bind

The result is that the entire property is obscured from public view to a degree without precedent in recent history, according to Charles Birnbaum, a former National Park Service official.

“It’s become a symbol of everything the administration is doing,” said Birnbaum, who is now chief executive of the Cultural Landscape Foundation, a D.C.-based nonprofit that opposes the administration’s plans to install permanent fences around Lafayette Park.