{"id":206081,"date":"2026-04-01T08:29:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T08:29:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-judge-orders-trump-to-halt-400m-white-house-ballroom-project-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T08:29:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T08:29:23","slug":"us-judge-orders-trump-to-halt-400m-white-house-ballroom-project-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-judge-orders-trump-to-halt-400m-white-house-ballroom-project-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"US judge orders Trump to halt $400m White House ballroom project – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

US president demolished East Wing of White House last year to make way for 90,000-sq-ft project
Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox<\/a>
A US judge has halted the construction of Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s $400m White House ballroom.
The US president demolished the historic East Wing<\/a> of the White House last year to make way for the project.
US district judge Richard Leon in Washington granted a request for a preliminary injunction by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a non-profit organization that brought a lawsuit alleging that Trump had exceeded his authority by razing the East Wing and beginning construction without approval from Congress.
The decision<\/a> by Leon, an appointee of George W Bush, leaves the 90,000-sq-ft ballroom project on hold unless it receives approval from Congress.
\u201cUnless and until Congress blesses this project through statutory authorization, construction has to stop!\u201d Leon wrote in his opinion<\/a> on Tuesday. \u201cBut here is the good news. It is not too late for Congress to authorize the continued construction of the ballroom project.\u201d
The Trump administration<\/a> immediately appealed against the order.
In a statement<\/a> on his Truth Social platform shortly after the ruling, Trump attacked the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which he called \u201ca radical left group of lunatics\u201d. The ballroom is \u201cunder budget, ahead of schedule, being built at no cost to the Taxpayer, and will be the finest Building of its kind anywhere in the World\u201d, the president claimed.
In a subsequent post, Trump attacked<\/a> the judge\u2019s decision: \u201cHe is WRONG!\u201d
\u201cCongressional approval has never been given on anything, in these circumstances, big or small, having to do with construction at the White House,\u201d Trump claimed.
President Harry Truman, who oversaw the last major renovation of the White House from 1949 to 1952, did seek and eventually receive congressional approval<\/a> for his plans.
Leon, in his order, said Trump needs to take a similar approach.
\u201cThe president may at any time go to Congress to obtain express authority to construct a ballroom and to do so with private funds,\u201d Leon wrote in his opinion.
\u201cIndeed, Congress may even choose to appropriate funds for the ballroom, or at least decide that some other funding scheme is acceptable. Either way, Congress will thereby retain its authority over the nation\u2019s property and its oversight over the government\u2019s spending.\u201d
He added: \u201cThe National Trust\u2019s interests in a constitutional and lawful process will be vindicated. And the American people will benefit from the branches of Government exercising their constitutionally prescribed roles. Not a bad outcome, that!\u201d
The decision comes after months of litigation. Earlier this month, Leon had signaled<\/a> his skepticism about the administration\u2019s argument that the ballroom was an allowed \u201calteration\u201d to White House grounds.
\u201cI\u2019m struggling to see this as an \u2018alteration\u2019,\u201d Leon said<\/a>.
White House lawyers have argued that the president did not need congressional approval for the project.
In February, Leon declined<\/a> an earlier request from the National Trust for Historic Preservation to halt construction of the ballroom, on procedural grounds, but he said he would consider an amended complaint, which the group filed shortly after.
The most recently reported cost estimate for the ballroom stands at $400m<\/a>. It has previously been reported that the project is being financed<\/a> by private donors and large corporations including Meta, Apple, Amazon, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Palantir, Google and Comcast.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US president demolished East Wing of White House last year to make way for 90,000-sq-ft projectSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxA US judge has halted the construction of Donald Trump\u2019s $400m White House ballroom.The US president demolished the historic East Wing of the White House last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":206082,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-206081","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}