In a close 2-1 ruling, the Washington-based US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld an injunction obtained by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which sued after the administration demolished the East Wing and began building a 90,000-square-foot (8,360-square-meter) ballroom without congressional approval.
“Whether a large ballroom should be built is a decision for Congress and not for Executive self-help,” the majority of the panel stated. “Congress has not relinquished its authority to the Executive Branch to drastically redesign, reshape, and reconstruct the White House — the People’s House — according to a specific President’s whims.”
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The appeals court has delayed its ruling for 14 days, giving the Trump administration time to appeal to the US Supreme Court.
The White House and the Justice Department have not responded promptly to requests for comment.
The administration appealed after US District Judge Richard Leon twice prohibited above-ground construction while permitting underground work to proceed.
Leon, appointed by former President George W. Bush, ruled that no federal law “comes close to granting the President” the authority to construct the ballroom without congressional consent.
Administration cites security concerns
The ballroom initiative is part of a broader strategy by the Trump administration to modify several government buildings and national monuments in Washington. In another lawsuit, a judge recently decided that Trump’s name had been added unlawfully to the exterior of the Kennedy Center and ordered it to be removed.
During arguments before the appeals court on June 5, Justice Department lawyer Yaakov Roth argued that the courts should not intervene in the privately funded ballroom project and that construction should not have been halted.
Roth insisted that the National Trust’s “architectural preference” against the ballroom should not supersede national security concerns, contending that the previous East Wing left the president and others in the White House susceptible to attacks.
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“They simply don’t want to engage Congress,” countered Thaddeus Heuer, an attorney for the preservation group.
Trump has supported the ballroom project despite its escalating cost, which has doubled from the initial estimate. In a post on Truth Social last month, he stated that the increase was due to it being “approximately twice the size, and of far higher quality, than the original proposal” and claimed it would be “magnificent, safe, and secure!”
