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President Donald Trump’s plans to add a ballroom to the White House would be bad for the design of the White House complex and grounds, according to a National Park Service (NPS) report. The report said the annex would “disrupt the historical continuity of the White House grounds and alter the architectural integrity of the easts side of the property.” Still, Trump is clear for now to move ahead with his plans. The NPS report is just the latest speed bump facing Trump’s plan to build a new annex since he had the White House East Wing demolished in October without seeking outside approval. It’s a saga of inflated expectations and a ballooning budget that’s blowing past calls for preservation and restraint. The NPS’s environmental assessment was released because the agency manages the White House, its grounds, and surrounding areas including Lafayette Square and sites in and around the Ellipse. The National Environmental Policy Act and Department of Interior regulations also compel the agency to. Their assessment found no significant environmental impact from building a ballroom and noted successive administrations have wanted a permanent, secure event space on White House grounds. But it also highlighted aesthetic and cultural concerns about Trump’s plans. That might not matter. Here’s where Trump’s plans to build a new building on the White House grounds stands: Trump replaces the original architect Trump confirmed on Dec. 4 to the Washington Post that he replaced the ballroom’s original architect McCrery Architects with a new firm called Shalom Baranes Associates. The switch up came following reports that Trump and McCrery Architects CEO Jim McCrery II disagreed over the planned size of the new building. McCrery reportedly believed Trump’s plans for a 90,000-square-foot ballroom would dwarf the 55,000-square-foot building of the main White House mansion. Trump has inflated the estimated cost and size of the planned ballroom over time, and initially said it wouldn’t interfere with the East Wing. In July the White House announced a building that would seat 650 people for an estimated $200 million. That grew to plans for complex with space to seat around 1,000 people that Trump said Wednesday would cost $400 million. The White House says private donors are paying for construction costs. Demolition of the East Wing of the White House, during construction on the new ballroom extension of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. [Photo: Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg/Getty Images] Preservationists file lawsuit to pause construction The National Trust for Historic Preservation filed a lawsuit on Dec. 12 accusing Trump of breaking the law by moving ahead with the East Wing teardown and plans for a new ballroom without public input or any sort of independent review. The National Trust said that Trump should have submitted his plans to Congress and the National Capital Planning Commission and the group asked the court to put a pause on construction. No president is legally allowed to tear down portions of the White House without any review whatsoevernot President Trump, not President Biden, and not anyone else, the lawsuit reads. And no president is legally allowed to construct a ballroom on public property without giving the public the opportunity to weigh in. In a court filing on Dec. 15, the Trump administration claimed construction must continue for unnamed national security reasons. Attorneys for the administration said the National Capital Planning Commission and the congressional Commission of Fine Arts will review Trump’s plans “without this Courts involvement.” A judge on Dec. 16 ruled that construction could move ahead after it rejected the National Trust’s request to temporarily halt the project. NPS weighs in An NPS environmental assessment published Dec. 15 estimated Trump’s plans for a 90,000-square-foot building with seating for more than 1,000 people would be completed by Trump’s final summer in office, in 2028. It also said the building would adversely effect the cultural landscape of the White House grounds. The report notes the imbalance of a ballroom that’s bigger than the rest of the White House and in adding a two-story East Colonnade. “The new building’s larger footprint and height will dominate the eastern portion of the site, creating a visual imbalance with the more modestly scaled West Wing and Executive Mansion,” it says. “These changes will adversely alter the design, setting, and feeling of the White House and the grounds over the long-term.” The assessment also notes that construction introduce temporary risks to the rest of the White House due to things like noise and vibration. Regardless of the report’s findings, it concludes that the planned building would meet the needs of providing a permanent, secure event space on the White House grounds, and that it doesn’t rise to the level of needing an environmental impact statement to be prepared.
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E-Commerce
The rapid growth of data centers during the AI boom has been a dominating narrative of 2025and, in many instances, not a popular one. Across the country, communities have pushed back against data centers planned for their cities and states. Some have even turned to online petition sites to raise awareness and voice collective opposition to such projects. One site, the popular platform Change.org, says it has seen a significant spike in data center-related petitions in recent months. Change.org saw at least 113 petitions that mentioned data centers in 2025, totaling around 50,000 signatures, the platform shared with Fast Company. It’s not clear if that figure includes multiple petitions about the same data center project. These petitions also simply mention data centersboth for or against. But a cursory search shows that the vast majority were opposed to them. Volume increased as the year progressed For Change.org, the topic is new: In all of 2024, there was just one petition regarding a data center, in April. No other petitions mentioned data centers until a year later, in April 2025, according to Change.org. Then, they began to tick up: Fewer than five petitions appeared each month until August, and then 12 were started in September, 37 in October, and 24 in November. And December looks to be even higher. As of Monday, users have created 28 data center-related petitions this month. One petition, titled Stop Data Center at Former Landover Mall Site, was created in June, concerning a data center in Landover, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C. It has more than 20,000 signatures, with many supporters calling out how data centers use immense energy and water, which often means higher utility costs for residents. “Say ‘NO’ to the construction of ‘Project Tango’ AI data center in Palm Beach County, begins another petition, which has more than 7,000 signatures and was started earlier in December. That petition was just one form of opposition against Project Tango, a proposed 200-acre AI data center complex in Florida. At zoning hearings, residents have raised concerns about the projects water consumption, environmental impacts, utility rate hikes, and potential noise. Another petition, titled Stop Data Centers in Hobart, Indiana Protect Our Community, has nearly 2,500 signatures. There have been multiple proposals to build data centers in Hobart throughout 2025; recently, at the end of November, the city reached a deal with Amazon to develop a data center there. That Change.org petition was created by a group called No Data Centers Hobart Indiana, which has a presence on Facebook and comprises more than 4,000 members. Angelita Soriano, a leader of that group, has recently filed a lawsuit, along with three other Hobart homeowners looking to overturn the citys actions to green-light the Amazon project. This lawsuit is our effort to keep our government accountable and to defend Hobart families, homes, water, and our environment, Soriano said in a statement. Residents shouldnt be ignored or deprived of their rights just to fast-track a massive industrial data center development in the heart of our community, right next to our schools, hospitals, and homes. “We need to slow it down” In some cases, community opposition is having a real impact. Between late March and June, 20 data center projects, representing about $98 billion in investments, were blocked or delayed in the United States, according to a November study from Data Center Watch, a project from the AI security and intelligence firm 10a Labs. These were instances in which local opposition was specifically reported to have played some role. To Miquel Vila, an analyst at the Data Center Watch project, community backlash to data centers has become an expected part of the development process. Before, local opposition was more of an anecdotal possibility, he says. Now, its becoming a core feature of development . . . in the same way issues like land, energy, and water are taken into account. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont recently said that he will push for a moratorium on AI data center construction to “give democracy a chance to catch up” to the surge that has largely been unregulated. “There is a whole lot about AI and robotics that needs to be discussed, needs to be analyzed, Sanders said in a video posted to X. But one thing is for sure. This process is moving very, very quickly, and we need to slow it down. We need all of our people involved in determining the future of AI, and not just a handful of multibillionaires.
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E-Commerce
In the heart of Aceh province in northwestern Sumatra, the Ketiara Cooperative, led by the remarkable Ibu Rahmah, is facing a crisis unfolding as we speak. This community of women-led farmers was devastated by the rare Cyclone Senyar over the Thanksgiving weekend, which caused catastrophic mudslides. Farms have been decimated, homes destroyed, and two vital bridges have been washed away, isolating entire villages and cutting off access to essentials like food, clean water, and electricity. Hundreds of people have died and hundreds more are still missing in their worst natural disaster since the 2004 tsunami. Grace Farms, a cultural and humanitarian center in New Canaan, Connecticut, is the home of Grace Farms Tea & Coffee, a nonprofit-owned Certified B-Corp dedicated to ethical sourcing and giving back 100% of profits to end forced and child labor. Right now, were turning that mission into immediate action through the Sumatra Resilience and Rebuilding Fund. Our partnership with the Ketiara Cooperative goes beyond procurement; it is a promise of mutual support. For now, each bag of Ketiara coffee sold provides $5 for essential relief: generators to restore electricity, Starlink internet access to break the isolation, and essential food supplies to sustain the most affected. COFFEE LINKS THE COMMUNITY But as we look ahead, this is not just an investment in resilience; its an acknowledgment that the road to recovery will be long. Within that journey, there lies an opportunity. Its a chance for all of us to be part of rebuilding not just what was lost, but what can be stronger and more sustainable. This is where we can reimagine recovery as rebuilding the future, deeply connected to community values. We often forget that a simple cup of coffee links us all. That cup is a bridge from our lives to the hands of farmers like these women in Sumatra, who cultivate the beans we enjoy every day. In moments of crisis, were reminded that were all connected by these global threads of community and care. Every contribution is not just about aidits about honoring the human connections that sustain us and using this moment to build a future that reflects our shared values. We invite everyone to be part of this model of micro-philanthropy. With every cup of coffee, youre contributing not just to immediate relief, but to a vision of a world where rebuilding means innovating for a better future. This is the essence of Grace Farms Tea & Coffee: a commitment to support our partners and to help reimagine how we all come together to create lasting change. Adam Thatcher is CEO and cofounder of Grace Farms Tea & Coffee.
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E-Commerce
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