White House Records Flag Ballroom Safety Concerns

White House records flagged life-safety concerns about the planned ballroom in September and November 2025, months after architect James McCrery II raised concerns about emergency exits and fire protection in preliminary designs, according to documents reviewed in reporting on the project. The records do not establish whether a later code review was completed, leaving unresolved how the concerns were addressed. Two people familiar with discussions told the Washington Post that McCrery warned the White House that early plans lacked adequate routes for guests to escape during an emergency and measures to prevent a kitchen fire from spreading into the event space above. The newspaper said documents it reviewed supported their accounts. The same people said President Donald Trump rejected the warnings, arguing that building codes did not apply to White House construction and saying, “I am the code.” The White House disputed that code concerns prompted McCrery’s departure and said safety issues had been addressed as the design evolved. McCrery, who left the project in October 2025, did not give a specific reason.