Trump the Builder Shows Democrats How to Run Over Permit Norms

“America is a nation of builders,” President Donald Trump said in his first State of the Union address in 2018. “We built the Empire State Building in just one year. Isn’t it a disgrace that it can now take 10 years just to get a minor permit approved for the building of a simple road?”

Presidents from both sides of the aisle have been saying that for years. Now, a year into Trump’s second term, things are finally starting to happen.

The Lisbon Valley Copper Project got special attention from the Trump administration and nailed down its last federal permits just six months later. The Environmental Protection Agency recently said it has shaved up to six months off infrastructure work to stop sewage from flowing into the US from the Tijuana River. And the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council, an agency whose sole mission is to help projects move through permitting faster, has added a staggering 50 mines to its to-do list since the second Trump administration began.

“You don’t have to hire a lobbyist to try and get a meeting anymore,” said Alex Herrgott, who led the Permitting Council in Trump’s first term and now helps companies get their permits. “I’ve never seen agencies move this fast to get out of their own way.”

But critics say the improvements are only happening because the administration is trampling longstanding norms. Only Trump-favored projects, such as mines and pipelines, are benefiting, leaving everything else to languish, they say. And some Republicans worry that Democrats could use the same tactics to muscle through their own agenda the next time they win the White House.

For example: just as the Trump administration has rushed permits through by declaring a national energy emergency, a Democratic president could declare a national climate emergency, as environmentalists repeatedly pressed former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden to do, so offshore wind farms and EV charging stations can get online faster.

Some of Trump’s critics rationalize that his rule-breaking approach to construction—the one that led him to raze the East Wing of the White House without approval from relevant agencies—is specific to him, and that once he leaves office, the agencies will return to regular order. (The administration has said it didn’t need permission for the demolition, and that it plans to submit its design for the new ballroom to the National Capital Planning Commission.)

But that thought has to be tempered with the reality that Democrats have finally gotten the construction bug too. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) recently slashed state rules to more quickly build affordable housing. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) has created a fast-track program to hurry the buildout of energy and AI infrastructure. And in Congress, a new “Build America” Caucus—which includes four members of the House Progressive Caucus, along with former member Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.)—is promoting pro-growth policies inspired by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s book “Abundance.”

If the nation’s permitting priorities flip flop every time the White House changes hands, investors could get spooked against sinking money into big projects. And demand is already jittery enough: the US construction pipeline has fallen by 60% since the second half of 2022, according to commercial real estate giant Cushman & Wakefield.

A more fundamental concern to the Trump approach is that it’s simply bad government to politicize processes that are supposed to be based in facts. Xan Fishman, vice president of the energy program at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said every administration should treat all types of projects fairly, and that the permitting process isn’t the place to make policy decisions over what sorts of infrastructure should move forward.

Some clarity may be on the way. Congress is getting ready to vote this week on a Trump-backed bill that would settle many of the debates over permitting. The measure would make several changes to the way agencies go about making permitting decisions. It would also add provisions limiting who can sue over agency decisions and how much time courts have to resolve cases.

To Emily Domenech, executive director of the Permitting Council, the congressional push is yet another sign of changing attitudes toward building.

“We have broad bipartisan agreement on Capitol Hill, saying, ‘Hey, we’ve got to make it easier to build in America or we’re never going to be able to compete with China,’” Domenech said. “That pull changes the dynamic.”