A federal judge on Tuesday ordered that President Donald Trump must stop building a ballroom on White House grounds until Congress authorizes the project. The planned $400 million ballroom would occupy the site of the East Wing, which was demolished last year to make room for the new structure. The administration has argued the addition is a necessary part of the White House complex.
The lawsuit was brought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit that said the president exceeded his authority by proceeding without statutory approval. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, a Republican appointed by former President George W. Bush, issued a preliminary injunction halting construction while the legal dispute continues.
Leon wrote that the president is a steward of the White House but not its owner, and that absent congressional authorization the project cannot go forward. The administration was given 14 days to appeal; it filed an appeal immediately.
National Trust CEO Carol Quillen called the ruling “a win for the American people on a project that forever impacts one of the most beloved and iconic places in our nation.”
President Trump responded on his social platform, calling the National Trust “left-wing lunatics” and defending the ballroom as being “under 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.”
The National Trust has also challenged the administration’s plan to overhaul the Kennedy Center, which the administration has renamed the Trump Kennedy Center.