On July 9, Trump appointed White House staff secretary and former personal lawyer Will Scharf as chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC). Michael Blair and Stuart Levenbach were also appointed to the commission.
Scharf confessed his lack of direct experience with architecture and urban planning.
In his introductory comments to NCPC Scharf said he previously served under Missouri’s governor, in which “capacity I worked extensively on economic development, tax credit issues and related permitting and planning issues, which I guess is my most relevant experience for the purposes of this commission.”
Axios
Under Scharf, the NCPC is immediately politicized and under the direction of the White House. It is turned into a weapon against Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who Trump has applied significant pressure to in an effort to artificially lower interest rates. Scharf claimed that the renovation project of the building housing the Federal Reserve made “serious deviations” from the NCPC’s approved plans made in 2021.
Powell insisted to the Senate that nothing was out of the ordinary regarding the renovation, “no VIP dining room … no beehives.” Unsatisfied, the NCPC claimed that Powell did not follow the approved blueprint. They also agreed to draft a letter “scrutinizing this project further.”
In an amazing “coincidence,” the one federal body actively resisting Trump is in violation of the NCPC’s plans.
