Trump’s $400 million White House ballroom project put on hold — ‘Not ceded unfettered to fit President’s desires…’

In a major setback to President Donald Trump’s administration, a US federal appeals court on Friday (local time) ordered a stop to a $400 million ballroom on the site of the White House's demolished East Wing.

Last year, the National Trust for Historic Preservation sued the Republican administration after it tore down the East Wing and began building a 90,000-square-foot (8,360-square-meter) ballroom without seeking authorisation from Congress.

In a divided 2-1 order, the Washington-based US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld a preliminary injunction won by the trust.

“Whether or not a massive ballroom should be constructed is for Congress to decide and is not a matter for Executive self-help,” the panel's majority wrote. “Congress has not ceded unfettered authority to the Executive Branch to dramatically redesign, reshape, and reconstruct the White House — the People’s House — to fit a particular President’s desires.”

The appeals court placed its ruling on hold for 14 days to allow the Trump administration to appeal to the US Supreme Court.

Trump administration appeals

Trump appealed after US District Judge Richard Leon twice blocked above-ground construction on the site while allowing underground work to continue.

Leon, an appointee of Republican former President George W. Bush, had ruled that no federal statute “comes close to giving the President” the required ​authority to construct the ballroom without ​congressional approval.

The ballroom plan, which the administration has described as necessary for large formal functions and to preserve the safety of the White House, is the grandest of several Trump efforts to reshape the landscape of government buildings and national monuments in central Washington.

A judge in a separate lawsuit recently said Trump’s name was illegally added to the exterior of the Kennedy Centre performing arts centre and ordered its removal.

In the ballroom case, Justice Department attorney Yaakov Roth said during DC Circuit arguments on June 5 that the courts have no role in weighing the privately funded project and that it would have been improper to block it at any point.

Roth said the National Trust’s "architectural preference" against the ballroom shouldn't take precedence over national security concerns, claiming evidence that the former East Wing left the president and others in the White House vulnerable to attack.

"They ⁠just don't want to go to Congress," countered Thaddeus Heuer, a lawyer for the preservation group.

Trump has defended his ballroom and its price tag, which has doubled from initial projections. Trump said in a post on Truth Social last month that the cost rose because “it is approximately twice the ​size, and a far higher quality, than the original ⁠proposal” and promised, “it will be magnificent, safe, and secure!”