White House officials last year secretly awarded a no-bid contract worth up to US$500 million ($880m) for the construction of the East Wing ballroom.
It is an unusual arrangement that sidestepped typical contracting procedures designed to control costs, according to a copy of the agreement obtained by The Washington Post.
The White House routed the contract through the Executive Residence, an office that is exempt from rules that require federal agencies to solicit competitive bids and disclose details to the public.
The office is typically responsible for routine repairs, entertainment expenses, and the purchase of furniture, art and other items for the executive mansion.
It is not responsible for major building works, such as the demolition of the East Wing, which falls under other government agencies.
The confidential ballroom contract with Clark Construction, along with related correspondence and records obtained by The Post, reveal for the first time how the Trump administration bypassed norms last summer as it set the ballroom project in motion.
Records also show that US President Donald Trump was directly involved in negotiating some costs for the project.
The East Wing contract is the latest example of the administration turning to no-bid deals to hasten a Trump-style makeover of the nation’s capital, which has included handpicking firms to upgrade Lafayette Square, the public park next to the White House, and to renovate the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool.
Competitive bidding is generally required at most federal agencies. Experts said the Executive Residence was exempt from those rules, and the President had legal authority to hire companies of his choosing to make changes to the executive mansion and the surrounding grounds.
The experts added that soliciting bids would have ensured the best price for taxpayers, especially given the size and cost of the East Wing project.
Anthony Costa, a former General Services Administration official, said: “I would certainly expect them to compete a project of this size and complexity.”
The estimated East Wing construction cost has tripled since July, when the project was first announced, with half expected to come from taxpayers, The Post previously reported.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that the ballroom would be paid for by private donors and once said that Clark executives offered to build it for free.
He told the New York Times in January: “They said, ‘Sir, we’ll do it for nothing. This is the greatest honour’.”
A White House official said in a statement that the East Wing contract was issued through the Executive Residence because that office “will be the primary support of the facility”. The Executive Residence is a division of the Executive Office of the President, which the statement said “consistently executes contracts following the law”.
A Clark spokesperson said in a statement that the firm had been a federal contractor for more than 80 years, adding: “We follow established procurement and contracting processes for each project and execute the work consistent with schedule, budget, delivery, and contractual requirements.”
The Trump administration tasked Clark with site preparation and other preliminary work last July, months before the East Wing was demolished, records show. That work was performed under a separate, existing Executive Residence contract the company had won in 2024, during the Biden administration.
The Biden-era contract covered “a wide variety of maintenance, repair, alteration and construction type tasks” that might arise at the White House over five years. It was awarded to Clark after a competitive bidding process and had a ceiling of US$500m ($880m), according to a copy of the agreement obtained by The Post.
The White House official told The Post that Clark’s Biden-era contract was “missing various clauses necessary for construction contracts”.
By mid-August, records show, Trump administration officials began negotiating the new, no-bid agreement for Clark to “fully demolish the East Wing and East Colonnade and construct a modernised East Wing facility”.
In an email exchange in early September, White House officials explained that they could award the no-bid contract to Clark because the Executive Residence was not bound by competitive bidding requirements.
The email cited a federal law that authorised the President to freely spend for the “care, maintenance, repair, alteration, refurnishing, improvement, air-conditioning, heating, and lighting” of the White House residence.
In a court case challenging the legality of the ballroom project, the Trump administration cited the same law as the basis for its authority to undertake the project. The litigation has not surfaced the fact that the contract was awarded without competitive bidding.
A federal judge rejected the administration’s position, concluding in March that the President’s authority to make changes to the White House did not include demolishing the East Wing and building the ballroom. The administration has appealed the ruling.
The Justice Department acknowledged in court filings in the case that the Executive Residence was overseeing contracts for the project, claiming it was “best-positioned” to do so in part because of its expertise in the use of the White House for official ceremonies.
But experts told The Post that the General Services Administration (GSA) or the National Park Service (NPS) was better equipped to handle contracting for large construction projects at the White House, and an internal White House document showed that this was the norm.
Major repairs and structural changes to the White House’s East Wing and East Colonnade are the responsibility of the GSA and NPS, according to the document, a 2024 memorandum of understanding for the maintenance and operations of the White House obtained by The Post.
The role of the Executive Residence “does not include maintenance or repair involving structural building elements or major utility systems for those areas, which are handled by GSA or NPS”, according to the memorandum, which expires in 2029.
After signing the East Wing contract, Clark officials notified the White House that the company planned to award no-bid deals to at least 11 subcontractors for demolition, abatement, excavation, fencing and other services, according to copies of correspondence obtained by The Post. Two of those subcontractors are Clark subsidiaries.
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