Court Halts Trump’s White House Ballroom
A federal appeals court has blocked above-ground construction of Donald Trump’s $400 million White House ballroom, ruling that a president cannot unilaterally remake the historic complex without congressional approval.
The 2-1 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit keeps in place an injunction sought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The proposed 90,000-square-foot ballroom would occupy the site of the demolished East Wing. Judges said the White House’s status as both a working government complex and a national landmark does not give the executive branch authority to bypass Congress.
Trump has defended the project as privately financed and says it would include national-security features such as shelter and medical space. But the court allowed only underground work tied to security needs to continue and barred above-ground construction unless Congress authorizes it. Trump has vowed to take the dispute to the Supreme Court, turning what was conceived as a signature architectural legacy project into another fight over presidential power and institutional limits.
