Work crews have started cutting down trees, removing shrubs and digging up parts of the South Lawn of the White House as they begin work on President Donald Trump’s project to construct a $200 million, 90,000-square-foot ballroom on a site just south of the building’s East Wing.

“Right there, you see all the trucks?” Trump asked reporters Thursday while on the South Lawn and pointing toward the East Wing. “They’ve just started construction of the new ballroom.”

Details of the project remain shrouded in secrecy and uncertainty. The White House has not released architectural plans for the building or its exact location and has, so far, not submitted the project to the National Capital Planning Commission, the government body that typically reviews plans for changes to federal property in t

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