Court blocks Trump’s ballroom, leaving White House hole

A lawsuit by the National Trust for Historic Preservation argued President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project violated a requirement that Congress grant “express authority” for erecting buildings on federal land. A federal judge agreed, and an appeals

For months now, the East Wing of the White House has been transformed into something that doesn’t resemble celebration at all. Workers have been laying an underground foundation for a ballroom that Trump tore down the East Wing to build.

But in federal court. the project is stuck between what the law requires and what Trump’s team argues Congress already allowed. The result is a symbolic and very literal gap on White House grounds: a “large hole” beside the residence—one that a judge said is “a problem of the President’s own making.”.

At the center of the fight is a lawsuit filed in December by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. a nonprofit chartered by Congress to encourage public awareness of threats to the country’s architectural heritage. The Trust says the administration failed to consult the commissions tasked by Congress with guiding development in the capital with an eye toward historic preservation. and failed to obtain legislative approval—steps it argued are required by law when buildings are erected on federal land in Washington.

That law, the Trust says, demands “express authority” from Congress. The administration pushed back by pointing to a 1948 law that it says already gave the White House permission to draw funds for maintenance and upgrades—citing purposes including “maintenance. repair. alteration. refurnishing. improvement. air-conditioning. heating. and lighting.”.

In a decision by U.S. District Judge Richard Leon—a George W. Bush appointee—Leon sided with the National Trust. He pointed to Congress’s history of authorizing major upgrades to the White House and said it could do so again either by appropriating money or by greenlighting a plan that would allow Trump to use private donors.

Leon also dismissed the administration’s argument that leaving a “large hole” would expose the president to harm. In the ruling, Leon mocked that claim, writing that “the existence of a ‘large hole’ beside the White House is, of course, a problem of the President’s own making!”

That injunction was blocked for now. An appeals court stayed Leon’s order preventing construction until the court hears arguments over the ballroom in early June. Even with the legal uncertainty, the work has not stopped; in the meantime, workers are laying the project’s underground foundation.

Carol Quillen. president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. made clear her organization is not inherently opposed to a ballroom itself. She said the process—required by law—matters because it forces buy-in from the very stakeholders whose approval and oversight help determine whether a project lasts.

“It’s not just bureaucracy for bureaucracy’s sake,” Quillen told HuffPost. “The process required by law often results in a better project. a project that both satisfies every modern need and also respects our nation’s historic resources. and also a project that has more support from the public. and so is likely to have a longer legacy.”.

While the case moves through the courts. Trump’s political team has been trying to push Congress toward approval through legislative bargaining. Republicans. the White House has asked. should add $1 billion for the “East Wing Modernization Project” to an immigration enforcement bill they were planning to pass—arguing the money is needed to make the ballroom “more secure” in light of an assassination attempt on Trump at a press gala.

But Republicans have not responded warmly. Sen. Jim Justice (R-W.Va.) told HuffPost earlier this month that the price tag sounded massive—“a thousand millions.”

This week, Republicans appeared poised to drop the ballroom money from their immigration bill. Then the bill itself fell apart after the Justice Department announced a new fund to compensate victims of government “weaponization,” including rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

That shift has left the ballroom’s legislative path unclear—especially with Congress set to move slowly through a packed calendar. Even supporters of the project acknowledge the clock is tight, and opponents say the delay is the point.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) captured the frustration in a way that ties together the politics and the construction site. He said the moment is what happens when Trump tries to move without getting buy-in—“That’s what happens when you don’t plan. and when you don’t consult. and when you don’t have a clear direction.” Coons added that it is hard to imagine a “better representation” of chaos and corruption than having the president’s 250th celebration take place while there is still a “great big hole in the ground” because Trump couldn’t get his own party to hand him a “billion-dollar slush fund” to build what opponents describe as a “golden ballroom.”.

The congressional fight has also exposed another tension: when Trump needed Republicans, he publicly backed challengers to key incumbent members, a move Democrats say helped break whatever leverage he might have had inside his own party.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) pointed to that sequence and the consequences he sees in the unfinished makeover. “Maybe the next president will just keep it as a hole in the ground to remind us to never ever elect somebody this corrupt and this reckless again. ” Murphy said. Murphy, it should be noted, may have ambitions to be the aforementioned next president.

For now, the White House project remains suspended in a kind of legal limbo—construction going on underground while court arguments are set for early June.

There is still a possible escape hatch. Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.). chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee—which has jurisdiction over national parkland. including the White House grounds—suggested courts could ultimately be the route to approval. “There’s always the appeals process in the courts, so that’s certainly not settled,” Westerman told HuffPost. “So I think there’s a lot to play out.”.

White House East Wing Modernization Project ballroom National Trust for Historic Preservation Richard Leon Congress immigration enforcement bill Jan. 6 rioters House Natural Resources Committee Bruce Westerman