Donald Trump’s White House ballroom was blocked Tuesday by a federal judge unless Congress approves its $400 million construction.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon prohibited any further construction of the East Wing ballroom, upholding a motion by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The prohibition is temporary until Congress approves the construction.
“I have concluded that the National Trust is likely to succeed on the merits because no statute comes close to giving the President the authority he claims to have,” Leon ruled.
The judge added: “The President of the United States is the steward of the White House for future generations of First Families. He is not, however, the owner!”
The ruling won’t go into effect for 14 days, which will allow Trump time to appeal the order. Along with the expectation of appeal, Leon acknowledged that any work necessary to ensure the safety of the White House grounds would remain exempt from his order.
Leon’s prohibitions span to “any further demolition, site preparation work, landscape alteration, excavation, foundation work, or other construction or related work, other than actions strictly necessary to ensure the safety and security of the White House and its grounds, including the ballroom construction site, and provide for the personal safety of the President and his staff.”
President Trump lambasted the ruling on Tuesday, writing in a lengthy Truth Social post that the National Trust for Historic Preservation is “a Radical Left Group of Lunatics” for suing to block the construction. Read the post in full below:
The news is the latest blow for Trump’s ballroom. Over the weekend, The New York Times reported that Thomas Gallas, architect and former member of the planning commission, said that “the timeline never made any sense to me” when it came to the administration saying the ballroom would be finished before Trump’s term ended.
The Times’ Junho Lee, Larry Buchanan and Emily Badger, who have backgrounds in architecture, urban planning and the arts, wrote, “The hurried reviews, with construction cranes already swiveling above the White House grounds, are an abrupt departure from how new monuments, museums and even modest renovations have been designed and refined in the capital for decades. And the ballroom will be worse off for it, architects warn.”
They also noted the planning committee was not allowed to weigh in on the concept design, though Rodney Mims Cook Jr., who was appointed by the president as chair of the arts panel, and Will Scharf, chair of the planning committee and White House staff secretary, both insisted otherwise.
“If not for President Trump, his desire to move quickly, and his raising the money to fund this, a project like this could languish for years with no decision or action,” Scharf added. “And we could still be debating it at N.C.P.C. meetings 20 years from now.”
