It's Not a Big Job ...

Susan Estrich
Wed, 18 Feb 2026 23:00:00 -0800
Opinion

It's just that they are so shameless about it.

On Thursday, the Commission of Fine Arts will welcome the newest, youngest, and least qualified member in its 116-year history. She is Chamberlain Harris, the president's 26-year-old receptionist/executive assistant, the only job she has ever had. She has zero background in the arts and architecture. The fine arts commission, whose initial slate of members included the architects and urban planners Daniel Burnham and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. — who designed much of Washington D.C. — is supposed to review the president's new ballroom plan, along with the National Capital Planning Commission. Guess how Ms. Harris will be voting?

Surely President Donald Trump has supporters in the worlds of arts and architecture who would welcome an appointment to a Commission charged with preserving our nation's most important monuments. But would they approve his Vegas-style mega-ballroom? God forbid they act like these grand jurors have been doing, much less the Republican appointed judges, who take their responsibilities of checks and balances seriously.
Updated: Thu Feb 19, 2026

It's just that they are so shameless about it.

On Thursday, the Commission of Fine Arts will welcome the newest, youngest, and least qualified member in its 116-year history. She is Chamberlain Harris, the president's 26-year-old receptionist/executive assistant, the only job she has ever had. She has zero background in the arts and architecture. The fine arts commission, whose initial slate of members included the architects and urban planners Daniel Burnham and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. — who designed much of Washington D.C. — is supposed to review the president's new ballroom plan, along with the National Capital Planning Commission. Guess how Ms. Harris will be voting?

Surely President Donald Trump has supporters in the worlds of arts and architecture who would welcome an appointment to a Commission charged with preserving our nation's most important monuments. But would they approve his Vegas-style mega-ballroom? God forbid they act like these grand jurors have been doing, much less the Republican appointed judges, who take their responsibilities of checks and balances seriously.

This White House is simply not interested in any of that. Loyalty to Donald Trump is what matters, and it is all that matters. They make no bones about it.

"She understands the president's vision and appreciation of the arts like very few others, and brings a unique perspective that will serve the Commission well," White House communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement. "She will be a tremendous asset to the Commission of Fine Arts and continue to honorably serve our country well."

Her unique perspective. Saying yes to the president. Whatever he wants. That's her sole qualification, and the only one they are interested in.

Big jobs and little jobs. Redesigning Washington D.C. The president also wants a triumphal "Arc-de-Trump." Very tasteful also. No doubt Ms. Harris will be one of its champions.

The White House has been sued for not consulting with the two commissions before it tore down the East Wing and began construction. Trump responded to the lawsuit by loading up the two commissions with allies who will give him whatever he wants, no matter how big and tacky and utterly unnecessary.

Unchecked power is what this administration seeks, and it seeks it in all things, political and artistic. At the cost of destroying whatever it touches. Look at the late, great Kennedy Center; having renamed it in his honor and stacked its board, only to find a revolt among artists and audiences, which has led Trump to announce that he would shut it down completely for two years. Better a closed-down monument than a thriving cultural enterprise named for someone else.

The members of the Commission of Fine Arts were supposed to be "well-qualified judges of the fine arts." No one is accusing Ms. Harris of that.

The Washington Post, reporting on Ms. Harris' appointment, noted that the former fine arts commissioners they contacted could not recall a member with as little prior experience as Harris. It's disastrous," Alex Krieger, an architect and professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, who was chosen for the commission in 2012 by former President Barack Obama and served a second term in the first Trump administration, told the Post. "Some of these people just have no qualifications to evaluate matters of design, architecture, or urban planning."

Qualifications to evaluate matters of design, architecture or urban planning were not what President Trump was looking for when he appointed Ms. Harris, or any member of his administration. He will, and does, sacrifice qualifications every day on the altar of loyalty to Donald Trump. And loyalty, as it is understood in politics, is not about standing by someone when they're in the right. That's just good judgment.