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On October 28, 2025, President Donald J. Trump moved decisively and dismissed all six members of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, a panel that has long stood between the White House and the patriotic vision of the American people. This was not a timid reshuffle; the commissioners were told by email that their positions were terminated effective immediately, and the administration made clear it intends to replace them with officials who share an America First approach to federal aesthetics.
Those removed were Biden appointees serving multi-year terms that critics claim should have insulated them from partisan revenge, but the reality is that presidents have the duty to staff advisory boards with people who reflect the administration’s priorities and the will of the voters. The old guard on the commission has obstructed major projects that would honor American greatness and restore classical dignity to our capital. If the commissioners were more loyal to design orthodoxies than to serving the nation, then their dismissal was overdue.
Make no mistake: the timing of the purge tracks directly with President Trump’s bold construction agenda — including a donor-funded White House ballroom and a planned triumphal arch — projects that the commission would have reviewed and possibly blocked. This isn’t about petty turf wars over windows and moldings; it’s about whether the federal government will embrace architecture that celebrates American history instead of peddling soulless modernist fashions. The American people voted for leadership that will put the country first, and architecture is part of that cultural renewal.
Conservative Americans should also note the hypocrisy of outrage from coastal elites who suddenly champion “independent” commissions only when those panels stand in the way of their preferred aesthetic or ideological outcomes. The same voices waved away similar removals under previous administrations, but now cry foul because the policies on the line are patriotic rather than progressive. Washington’s design bureaucrats do not own the soul of the capital; the people do, and elected leaders must be able to realign advisory boards accordingly.
Some will shout “politicization” as if every appointment of like-minded public servants is a crime, but the real politicization was the long-standing capture of cultural institutions by an elite that sneers at American traditions. If the president wants commissioners who will approve projects that glorify the nation and its heroes, that is not a vendetta — it is stewardship of America’s public face. Courts can sort legal technicalities, but voters should be the final arbiters of the cultural direction of their government.
This is a moment for conservatives to stand proud and support bold action to reclaim the symbols of our nation. Hardworking Americans deserve a capital that reflects strength, history, and pride, not a playground for self-appointed critics who put ideology over country. If that means installing commissioners who will approve grand, classical public works and defend patriotic designs, then so be it — let the critics howl while we build a Washington that makes the whole country proud.
