Members of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) appointed by the Biden administration were terminated by the Trump administration in October 2025. Every CFA seat was vacant until this month, when the Trump administration began appointing members to the government agency tasked with reviewing design plans.
Months after stepping down from the White House East Wing ballroom project, on January 14, architect James McCrery was re-appointed to the CFA by Trump. McCrery was first appointed to the CFA in 2019, but then deposed by President Biden in 2021.
Aside from McCrery, other CFA members Trump has appointed to the CFA are Mary Anne Carter, Roger Kimball, Matthew Taylor, and Rodney Mims Cook, Jr. There are now two seats left to fill in the 7-member agency.
Previously, Carter was appointed chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in December 2025, a position she held in Trump’s first term. Carter now holds key positions in both the NEA and CFA.
Like McCrery, Cook, Jr. served on the CFA during Trump’s first term but was deposed by Biden. He is a developer who serves as founder and president of the National Monuments Foundation. Cook, Jr. has long advocated for a triumphal arch in Washington, D.C.—a prerogative shared by the Trump administration.
Taylor is currently a White House official that is aiding the Trump administration in its construction of the National Garden of American Heroes, a project Trump first floated in 2020 that was struck down by Biden in 2021. And Kimball is a conservative art critic who garnered attention for spreading electoral fraud conspiracy theories in 2020.
Moving forward, the CFA members and National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) will weigh in on several building projects underway in the nation’s capital, including the controversial White House ballroom project.
The next CFA meeting is scheduled for January 22.
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