The National Trust for Historic Preservation told the high court that ballroom construction should stop unless Trump gets approval from Congress.
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WASHINGTON – The Trump administration is trying to outrun the courts and make the president’s new ballroom impossible to stop, the National Trust for Historic Preservation told the Supreme Court in an effort to pause the project.
The group urged the court not to let construction continue until the legal battle has been resolved.
Otherwise, the project “will in all likelihood become irreversible,” the group said in its Aug. 18 response to the Trump administration’s emergency appeal to keep working on the 90,000-square-foot ballroom.
Lower courts said construction on the above-ground portion of the project should be halted on Aug. 21 unless the administration gets approval from Congress.
The administration argues that congressional approval is not needed and that the National Trust for Historic Preservation can’t challenge the ballroom based on a trust member’s “subjective preference” about how the White House should look.
The administration has also heavily emphasized security concerns, including President Donald Trump’s reference to the structure as a “military center.”
The pending order from a federal judge − which was backed by a divided appeals court − allows underground work on bomb shelters and other security-related components to move forward. But the administration argues the entire project is “inextricably intertwined.”
“A single judge cannot second-guess how much protection for the President is ‘strictly necessary,’ when the Executive, military, intelligence services, and Secret Service all recommend immediate and uninterrupted completion of the entire Project,” the Justice Department told the Supreme Court in its appeal.
Because the materials being used are meant to withstand even nuclear blasts, there would be no way to take down or even alter the building if courts issued such an order, according to the appeal.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation said the administration’s “striking admission” that the project is “on the brink of a fait accompli” is exactly why construction must pause until the legal issues have been resolved.
Trump, whose background is in real estate, has made several changes in the White House, including replacing the Rose Garden lawn with a paved patio and gilding the Oval Office.
For years, Trump has been pushing for a ballroom in the White House that would accommodate large gatherings, such as state dinners. He has lamented the fact that many of the fancy affairs in the past were held in tents.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has argued that the project’s size would “overwhelm the White House itself.”
If allowed to continue, construction is expected to be finished a few months before the end of Trump’s term, according to the administration.