In a case brought by historic preservation groups (Cultural Heritage Partners, PLLC v. Trump, No. 1:25-cv-03969 (D.D.C. filed Nov. 14, 2025), a sworn declaration by Mydelle Wright, a retired General Services Administration (GSA) official, has drawn the federal court’s particular attention. Ms. Wright alleged that the White House is exploring demolition or irreparable, damaging alterations to four historic federal properties: soliciting bids to demolish the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building, the Robert C. Weaver Federal Building (HUD headquarters), the GSA Regional Office Building (also listed as the “Federal Office Building, 7th & D”), and the Liberty Loan Building.
Lambert here: One might speculate that DOGE’s attempted theft and transfer of USIP’s headquarters to GSA was part of this effort.
The heritage groups’ attorney told Judge Dabney Friedrich of the US District Court for the District of Columbia that under pressure from President Trump, the GSA was incapable of following the required processes set forth in environmental and historic preservation laws.
Among other proposals announced by the administration following the demolition of the East Wing and plans for a giant ballroom dwarfing the remaining White House, the President has said he would paint the entire granite exterior of the late 19th century Eisenhower Executive Office Building “white,” and getting bids from painters.
In March, at the height of DOGE, the GSA originally posted a listing of 440 federal buildings to be offered for sale – half of all federal buildings – but this listing was wiped off its website within hours and replaced with a notice that a new list was “coming soon.” It wasn’t. However, the administration still claims to be massively disposing of unneeded federal real estate, including agency headquarters whose workers have been ordered to come back to office work or be fired.
In her declaration, Ms. Wright wrote:
“For the first time of which I am aware, a President is personally involved in facilitating end-runs around the agency’s obligations to the buildings that are our national heritage, and who in the agency is going to tell him ‘No?’”
For example:
Seymour Fogel, Wealth of the Nation, 1942, buon fresco with secco additions, commissioned through the Section of Fine Arts, 1934-1943. Fine Arts Collection, U.S. General Services Administration, Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building, Washington, DC., Carol M. Highsmith photography.
Lambert here: Some might see the (CIA-bankrolled) Abstract Expressionist movement as a reaction to, and erasure of, art in the style of New Deal murals — or even of the New Deal itself — though of course that was not the intent of the artists themselves. Personally, I prefer Pollock to Fogel, but perhaps all that means is that my tastes have been shaped by the spooks more than I knew.
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