Many people suspected this was the strategy, and now it is being argued in court. The Trump admin’s position is that if it moves quickly enough to dismantle or alter public assets, courts may be unable to stop it after the fact. In effect, “move fast and break things” is becoming a legal defense. During a hearing over the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s challenge to Trump’s White House ballroom project, Judge Patricia Millett asked whether anyone could successfully challenge a president who decided to bulldoze the Statue of Liberty. DOJ attorney Yaakov Roth responded, “I think that’s right, yes,” arguing that if the government acted quickly enough, courts would be powerless to provide a remedy and that only Congress could step in. The exchange came as the administration argued that courts lack the authority to halt construction of Trump’s $400 million ballroom project, even after historic portions of the White House complex were demolished to make way for it. That is an extraordinary claim of executive power. Under the administration’s own legal theory, a president could destroy some of America’s most iconic landmarks and then argue that the courts are unable to undo the damage once it has been done.
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